Dealing With High Speed Internet Options (Rev 02/03
We begin this story by turning back the clock five years. We’re back in a time when a relatively few RVers are beginning to recognize the need for a new amenity at RV parks and campgrounds – a phone line that will allow them to connect their laptop to the Internet, primarily to send and receive email messages. Many park owners are confused. Why are these RV guests with laptops asking to use one of my phone lines? Why don’t they just use pay phones? Do they really expect me to put in an extra phone line to be available for their laptops? Who’s going to pay for the phone line?
Sound familiar? No doubt it will to many park owners. And history has a curious way of repeating itself – which it’s about to do once again…
The Issues -- “Then”
When the issue of “modem friendly” first emerged several years ago, only a very few RVers traveled with laptops on board, and fewer still were using the Internet. These early adopters of Internet technology were out in front of most RV park owners and managers. And for the next couple of years RV park owners were scrambling to catch up. There were multiple issues involved here. First, it was important for park owners to understand why their RV guests were now asking for a “modem line”. Second, there were issues about how best to accommodate that need. Options included simply offering use of an existing office line for a few minutes when it was available; providing access through shared use with a fax or credit card line; providing a data port at an existing pay phone; or setting up one or more dedicated phone lines for use by RVers with laptops. And finally there was the legitimate issue of cost: Should modem access be considered just another amenity, and covered by the daily rate? Or should it be available only on a fee basis. What was not quickly recognized by many park owners – and is still not seen clearly by some – is the marketing implications of how these questions would be addressed. Increasingly RVers would be attracted to (and return to) parks that offered easy modem access while they were “on the road”. And if a fee was charged, particularly where it was perceived a park was attempting to create a new and separate revenue source, RVers began to “vote with their feet” and go elsewhere. When the dust settled it appears the overwhelming majority of parks concluded that offering modem access to its guests was an important amenity that would attract more RVers and favorably impact revenues. And the majority of these parks have concluded that charging a separate fee for such a service would be penny wise and pound foolish.
A Moving Target
We now turn the clock ahead again to the present. Most RVers are now computer literate, and the number that now rely on the Internet has increased exponentially. Moreover the type of use has begun to change significantly. Initially RVers typically wanted only to send and receive a few short emails, most likely to kids and friends. Sending and receiving text files is relatively fast using the data transmission speed offered by most standard phone connections. But all that is changing – and fast. Now RVers want to see pictures of the kids and grandchildren, sent as “attachments” to emails. These are much, much larger files -- and take considerable time using an ordinary phone line to download.
More importantly RVers are no longer using an Internet connection merely for email. They’re discovering they can manage their banking relationships and securities portfolios, They can track their phone bills by downloading monthly statements. And they can use the Internet to “explore” the local area, the next destination, maps and routing options between stops, and the weather en route. The sources of useful nformation now available through the Internet has grown beyond all expectation. And these new information resources (as distinguished from the simple communications uses) have one thing in common: the requirement of downloading much larger files from the Internet. And at typical speeds offered by a regular phone connection, the entire process has become painfully slow and cumbersome. Where five minutes online might have been sufficient for simple email uses in prior years, today’s requirement to download large data files might require an hour or more. That’s why many park owners are beginning to sense that the “modem connection” that worked for them until recently is no longer working quite so well – and lines of impatient RVers waiting for a phone connection are growing longer.
The Issue: High Speed Internet Access
The reason more people are able to send and receive large files over the Internet is the growing availability of new technologies that have the ability to transmit data at far higher speeds than can be achieved with a standard telephone voice line. The term “broadband”, when referring to an Internet connection, describes one of several new methods for transferring data at much higher speeds – usually at least 10 times faster (or more) than over a regular voice phone line. Thus a picture or other large file (such as a bank statement) may take several minutes to download using a a standard phone connection -- but only few seconds with a high speed connection.
As with all emerging technologies it’s difficult to identify any one of them that is the “best” today, and is certain to be “the best” again a year from now – or even next week. Among the available options today are:
Each of these service offerings has its own set of advantages and limitations that are beyond the scope of this article. The important fact to note is that these services are becoming more broadly available to RVers at home and in the office. And as a consequence RVers uses of the Internet when they’re not on the road is rapidly expanding. They’re quickly becoming accustomed to the greatly expanded horizons of the Internet offered when a high speed connection is available – and the relative glacial speed of a standard phone line will no longer suffice for these new age RVers..
A Park Owner’s Dilemma
So history is indeed once again repeating itself with this new generation of “modem friendly” options. And the issues look awfully familiar. At first many park owners will be wondering why RVers are no longer satisfied with the regular phone line that the park offers for the convenience of its guests. And once they understand the “why” part, they will again be in a quandary about which of the available “solutions” to pursue, and how to deal with the costs involved. And, just as with the first generation of “modem friendly” issues, perhaps the last consideration to be addressed will be what should in fact be the first issue: What are the marketing implications of the various options? We think there is a great deal to be learned from looking back to the lessons of the “first generation” of issues dealing with modem access.
Shades of the Past
We found the timing of this article important because any time there is a new “opportunity”, there will be persons that will seek to profit from it. That’s not only legitimate, in a real way that’s what makes the world go around. When the first generation of modem access issues developed, there were some creative third party services developed to respond to the situation. Many park owners knew little about why a small – but growing – number of their RV guests were asking for a phone hookup. But others, outside the industry, saw both a need and a profit opportunity. Some approached park owners with an attractive proposition: Let us provide you with a new revenue source AND solve your “modem access” problem. Sounds great! The solution was typically some variation on the theme of an outside vendor providing one or more phone lines dedicated to laptop users, with the common denominator of charging a fee based on the number of minutes of connect time used by the RVers. A credit card was the usual method of collecting the fee.
At first it sounded like a win/win situation. Or maybe that should be a “win/win/win” situation, with the outside service provider, the park, and the RV guest all getting what they wanted. But it doesn’t appear to have worked out that way. These offerings were often not “user friendly” (even though so advertised), and RVers objected to now paying a fee for what they had previously gotten for free. Yes, a dedicated phone line for modem users was much more convenient than borrowing a shared office line for a few minutes – but the downsides appear to have been more important in the long run. Most schemes were unfamiliar to RV guests, difficult to understand and use, and imposed a fee where before there was none.
And here’s where the marketing implications began to surface. Where RVers perceived that parks had introduced these third party services for the purpose of generating an additional source of revenue for the park, they rebelled – and in many cases went elsewhere. In the long run it appears that those parks that provided the best service, in terms of ease of use and cost, (typically none to the RVers), benefited in terms of increased park patronage by the growing number of RVers who were discovering the benefits of Internet access while they were on the road.
New Generation Issues: Both Same and Different
The similarities between the early days of “modem access” and the emerging technologies that can offer a completely different and far better service seem apparent. Many parks don’t fully understand why a small but growing number of their guests want more than a standard phone line (they want high speed Internet access). As in the “early days”, they probably find it difficult to recognize and understand that what is a mere trickle of requests today will become a flood of demand in the next few years. And most parks likely do not have the technical qualifications to make an intelligent assessment of which of the available technologies will offer the best “solution” to their emerging needs.
Yet there are differences here as well. First generation solutions could be accommodated in many cases by simply offering an existing phone line for what was initially just occasional use by RVers with laptops. Eventually considerations of convenience – both to the park and its guests – resulted in many opting to provide one or more dedicated phone lines for laptop use. Because there was a general perception that “all we need is a simple phone line”, where a fee was imposed for its use many RVers objected, and began looking for parks that would provide them them with free modem access. Most parks appear to have opted to account for any added costs in the daily rate, realizing the allure of modem access would attract RVers to the park.
Broadband (high speed) Internet access is a horse of a very different color, in that a park is not being asked to “share” something that is perceived to be “already there” (a phone line); but rather to provide a new service for which there is more broadly based expectation that an additional fee would of necessity apply. A reference to our own interpretation of “modem friendly” (a phrase originated at this site) seems appropriate here. We’ve consistently labeled parks as “modem friendly” if they offer some reasonable (under the circumstances of that park) modem access to overnight guests at some place in the park – and do not charge an extra fee for doing so. However, where a park has made the extra investment to provide telephone hookups at the site, and charges a reasonable daily fee (e.g. $2-$3) that too qualifies as “modem friendly”. We reason that the extra investment in the phone system plus the added convenience to the RV guest justifies an additional (reasonable) charge.
In the case of broadband Internet access, our reasoning is similar. We believe a reasonable charge for this specialized amenity is justified. However in the case of pricing high speed Internet access what is “reasonable” gets more complex. Investment in an in-park wireless system should be considerably less than the cost of adding the underground wires necessary to provide site phone service. In fact it is so much less expensive it's possible some forward looking parks may provide the service without cost to its guests. However, to the extent the park is able to provide a quality, easy to use high speed service at competitive rates, we think the park qualifies as “second generation modem friendly”. What’s most important, we believe, is that the park offer the best value to its guests. Value can only be measured in terms of (i) quality of service (speed and reliability); (ii) ease of use; and (iii) cost. In our view where a park’s motivation for providing high speed Internet connection is based primarily on the desire to secure a new revenue source, rather than the decision to offer a "valuable" new amenity, the “friendly” part goes away.
It is still too early to know what types of high speed services parks may choose to offer. The simplest would seem to be a DSL connection at a convenient location that laptop users could plug into. Some parks may see this as a way to entice RVers to the park, and provide it at no cost. Others will surely devise some method for sharing the cost of the DSL service, such as a fixed fee per hour (or half hour, etc.). Others will likely experiment by putting a DSL connections at one or more sites, and surcharging an extra amount, e.g. $3, for daily use. Still others will consider the offerings of third party vendors – though when they do we hope they will carefully weigh the considerations we’ve identified in this article.
Office hookup versus connecting at the site
The picture here is not complete without reference to the offering of modem access at the site. The demand for this feature can be expected to accelerate as well. Most first generation modem connections are in an office, laundry room, game room, or other public area. A few parks – mostly those constructed in the past few years – offer phone connections at the site. But only where a phone connection can be activated for short term use are site phone connections useable by RVers other than long term residents. Our focus has consistently been on modem access for short term guests – the RV traveler. A small minority of parks offers instant phone connections at the site that can be used (usually for a nominal extra fee) on a daily or weekly basis. This of course provides a far more convenient location for Internet access, since it’s done from inside the RV. There’s no need to drag a laptop to some distant location in the park, and perhaps wait in line for a phone line. And there’s no need to limit online time to just a few minutes so that others can use the shared line.
RVers have two other options for getting online access at the site, but so far both have practical limitations. One is the use of a cell phone modem connection. However this is of course limited to areas that have adequate cell coverage. And even where cell coverage is adequate the connection speed is both slow and unreliable. This makes a cell connection marginally acceptable for those only needing to send or receive short text email messages – but inadequate for most other Internet purposes. The other option is a satellite connection, using a roof mounted dish that has the capability of two way data transmission. The connection speed is usually quite fast. But the obstacle to this method is cost. Installation of the needed equipment costs more than $5,000; and the monthly subscription cost approaches $100. This prices the satellite option out of reach for the vast majority of RVers.
One of the promising new technologies for providing RVers with a connection at the site is an in-park wireless connection, using a special modem that can be purchased or rented (or even newer laptops that are already equipped to use the wireless connection), and which can deliver high speed Internet connections to every site in the park. Look for options that will package new high speed Internet access with wireless in-park systems to address both the need for site connections, and for high speed access. Whether the pricing and "ease of use” requirements will be met so as to entice a sufficient number of RVers to use such a service is still an open question.
Summary
The purpose of this writing is both to forecast the coming need for high speed Internet connections at RV parks, and to assist park owners and managers in evaluating new options which are becoming available. Once again there will be confusion and indecision about what course to pursue, and which technology offering to adopt. Once again outside third party providers will be offering fee based solutions. The pitch will again surely be the promise of a “new revenue stream” for RV parks, all done with little or no investment. But if the history of modem access at RV parks has one teaching point, it is that the “second generation modem friendly” solutions should be evaluated not on the basis of an elusive “new revenue stream”, but rather on its future marketing potential. Attracting and retaining more RV guests is, in our view, the primary goal. And that means the best solution for any RV park will be the one that offers the best value for RV guests. We would reiterate that “value” means ease of use, a quality (speed and reliability) service offering, and competitive rates.
None of these factors should be considered lightly. “Ease of use” refers to the ability of RVers to understand how to use it – and not be intimidated or confused by it. While there are exceptions, most RVers still have difficulty using a computer in unfamiliar ways. If new equipment is required, or there is a need to “reconfigure” their laptop, many will be reluctant to even give it a try – despite the insistent assurances from a service vendor that “it’s easy”. If a service offering is not reliable, or does not deliver consistent high speed performance for any reason, its reputation will quickly spread and RVers will avoid it. And, finally, if a park can not or does not negotiate the most favorable rate possible on behalf of their guests, RVers will predictably be going elsewhere to get a more favorable rate.
Finally, we’d like to recognize that we are only at the starting point of the inevitable move to “second generation modem friendly”. We believe the majority of RVers today view modem connections only in terms of sending or receiving email. For them a convenient access for their laptop somewhere in the park will still suffice. For this reason it would be an extraordinary mistake for any park to view the move to high speed access as something that should replace existing modem friendly offerings. The demand for high speed access will vary among parks, and will be dependent upon the park’s clientele. For some the demand is likely already there, along with a superb marketing opportunity to provide an offering that will surely prove to be a keen attraction for a growing number of RVers. Other parks will not yet sense a significant interest in the new generation of Internet access options. But one thing is clear: Despite the fact we’re only at the leading edge of the demand, there will be an accelerating interest in the new Internet technologies. And in time parks that do not make a timely transition to second generation solutions will be doing so at their peril.
With expanding options for higher speed Internet access, and new service offerings surely en route, we’ll be tracking these developments carefully, and updating these comments periodically. Meantime, we invite park owens and RVers alike to send along their comments and observations so that we may keep this issue in focus. By doing se we think we can ensure the best possible outcome both for parks and RVers.
NOTE: We subsequently received one particularly thoughtful response to this article that we believe deserves to be included as a further reference on this subject.
© 2003, RVers Online