The average profit of SMEs is £13,000, the main telecom providers charge around £1,000 to install the hardware and software necessary to offer free customer Wi-Fi at their premises, and between £30-£50 a month to run it.
Research from XLN shows that 82% of Brits would be more likely to visit local businesses if free Wi-Fi was offered, additionally, the average time customers are spending using their service while shopping in small businesses is up 32% in the last 6 months. This equates to 25 million minutes spent with independent high street businesses, not corporate chains.
Christian Nellemann, Founder of XLN is furious about the state of affairs small businesses face. When researching the launch of their customer Wi-Fi service it was a “very fast decision” that the service must be free – Free to the businesses and free for the businesses customers, even if the cost is a loss to XLN. “It’s always been our ambition to do more than simply save small businesses money. We want to help them grow too – and XLN Wi-Fi is testament to that, how can you expect a small business to have the thousands required to offer something to their customers which is shown to be near essential to survive?” comments Christian.
