1. Carolina says:

   07/17/2008 at 11:55 am

   This by far is the best news of Comic-Con I’ve heard!
2. Lea Hernandez says:

   07/17/2008 at 12:32 pm

   F*CKING AWESOME.
3. Mark Coale says:

   07/17/2008 at 12:50 pm

   A far cry from those days where you had to try and use those kiosks in the lobby to try and check your email.
4. Todd Klein says:

   07/17/2008 at 1:06 pm

   Good news, but why the absence in the Exhibit Hall? Is that a separate paying business deal for the Convention Center? And how do they keep the free signals out?
5. Tommy Raiko says:

   07/17/2008 at 1:25 pm

   “Good news, but why the absence in the Exhibit Hall? Is that a separate paying business deal for the Convention Center? And how do they keep the free signals out?”

   I imagine that wifi is kept out of the Exhibit Hall because they don’t want to antagonize any exhibitors who have probably already paid the convention for internet service at their booths. Or possibly that the convention looks at providing wifi in the Exhibit Hall itself as a separate sponsorship package, and that even this studio didn’t have pockets deep enough to (want to ) pay for it.
6. Todd Klein says:

   07/17/2008 at 1:36 pm

   Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Still don’t know how they can physically keep the signals out, though.
7. Kelson says:

   07/17/2008 at 1:53 pm

   It’s probably less a matter of keeping the signals out than the fact that the exhibit hall is HUGE. I’m trying to imagine how many access points would be needed to cover it.

   This is great news, though — I’ve been trying to work out how to get some decent internet access on my phone, but if I can sit down by the wall and open up my notebook, which has a real keyboard, I’ll be able to type much faster.
8. Matt H says:

   07/17/2008 at 1:56 pm

   Great news. Even though my laptop is too damn heavy to easily tote about, if I feel willing to torture myself for a day I may bring it to do some work.
9. Tommy Raiko says:

   07/17/2008 at 2:42 pm

   “It’s probably less a matter of keeping the signals out than the fact that the exhibit hall is HUGE. I’m trying to imagine how many access points would be needed to cover it.”

   That’s a good point.

   It occurs to me that the convention center might also be already covered by non-free wifi, the pay-as-you-go type that charges money for the privilege that you find in some hotels and cafes and whatnot. Heck, if I were running a convention center, that’s one revenue stream that I’d want to set up for sure, to get some more from the Blackberry addicted exhibitors!)

   If so, maybe this convention center doesn’t want to offer wifi sponsorship that’d supplant that revenue stream, or their charge for such sponsorship is insanely expensive (to the revenues they won’t be making from pay-as-you-go-ers.)
10. Lea Hernandez says:

    07/17/2008 at 3:01 pm

    D’oh, wait. No wi-fi in the exhibit hall proper? I mean, I’ll live, but is that correct?
11. pulphope says:

    07/17/2008 at 3:59 pm

    I can’t believe no one thought of this before– a good-will service to the attendees and exhibitors wrapped into a lot of word-of-mouth PR for the company.

    Is this really the first time this has happened?
12. Tommy Raiko says:

    07/17/2008 at 4:14 pm

    Lea Hernandez: “No wi-fi in the exhibit hall proper? I mean, I’ll live, but is that correct?”

    A little web surfing turned up this page about the San Diego Convention Center facilities:
    http://www.visitsandiego.com/exhibitors/telecommunications.cfm
    which seems to indicate theat there’s a wi-fi service provider for the center. So if the center is wi-fi ready, that may jibe with my earlier thought that there must be pay-as-you-use-it wifi there. It may be that there’s wi-fi, just not free wi-fi

    pulphope: “Is this really the first time this has happened?”

    I don’t know if it’s every happened for a comics convention, but for what it’s worth, I’ve been to other trade shows where some sponsor has paid for free wi-fi for attendees. Come to think of it, though, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sponsor pay for free wi-fi for a show twice, which makes me think that it’s incredibly expensive, and some bean counter somewhere thought, “Well that was fun, but not cost effective. Let’s put our promo money somewhere else next time.”
13. JWH says:

    07/17/2008 at 4:52 pm

    Tommy, you keep talking about the center having wi-fi. Yeah…that’s kind of covered by the free wi-fi being provided everywhere BUT the exhibitor hall.

    My guess? If they offered up the services for free to everyone in the exhibitor hall, the bandwidth would be hurt for the exhibitors who might need it a little bit more for their commerce than you need it RIGHT THERE to check e-mail. Much better you have to wander out into the hall to file a blog about some gossip you just heard at a booth than have a line of pissed, high-paying exhibitors complaining after the show.
14. Tommy Raiko says:

    07/17/2008 at 5:38 pm

    “Tommy, you keep talking about the center having wi-fi. Yeah…that’s kind of covered by the free wi-fi being provided everywhere BUT the exhibitor hall.”

    I agree. I’m just clarifying that the fact that there’s no free wi-fi in the exhibit halls probably means that there’s not-free wi-fi in the exhibit hall, not (as some may conclude or fear) that there’s no wi-fi in the exhibit hall at all.
15. The Beat says:

    07/17/2008 at 5:48 pm

    FREE WIFI IN THE CON CENTER!

    So you have to walk out of the exhibit hall. IT’S TOO CROWDED in there anyway.

    Let’s be happy with anything free. I will be putting all my freebies up on ebay while sipping my $9 frappucino that it took me an hour to get.
16. Chip Mosher says:

    07/18/2008 at 4:11 am

    For exhibitors they are charging 600+ for dedicated wi-fi.

    C.
17. Susie says:

    07/18/2008 at 8:48 pm

    Liveblogging at panels.
    Some folks are gonna get into fights about being able to use their laptops during studio presentations.

    And I couldn’t help but notice that the “Eagle Eye” ad above doesn’t have a url. I’m sure it’s gonna serve when you log on, but some of us don’t actually use the free wee-fee.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

1. meltblog » Blog Archive » San Diego Comic-Con 2008 Roundup - 17. Jul, 2008

   [...] Notables: Unfortunately, tickets are now sold out Free Wi-Fi this year! Hyatt controversy? [...]

2. WiFi for the Con | K-Squared Ramblings - 18. Jul, 2008

   [...] Today, the news started making the rounds that the con will have free wi-fi everywhere except the exhibit hall itself, sponsored by the film, Eagle Eye. (Which, now that I think about it, is oddly appropriate and somewhat disturbing.)   This is a huge relief, and makes the phone access much less critical. Though it would still be nice… [...]

3. WiFi for the Con | K-Squared Ramblings - 06. May, 2010

   [...] the news started making the rounds that the con will have free wi-fi everywhere except the exhibit hall itself, sponsored by the film, Eagle Eye. (Which, now that I [...]

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