Monday, October 25th, 2010
René Hendrikse, Vice President, Northern Europe
At a time when you would think Governments would be looking to stimulate business travel after the recent economic downturn, it seems ridiculous to hear of the situation facing Dutch hotels, specifically relating to their provision of Wi-Fi. As this article says, Dutch hotels may be forced to register as ISPs if they offer internet access to the public.
Much the same thing has been discussed before, particularly in the UK, and I think the reaction of this from the vast majority of people is that it seems an incredibly heavy-handed and short-sighted way of cracking down on copyright infringement. Let’s be honest – given the choice between becoming an ISP and monitoring all the usage on their connection, or simply turning off the Wi-Fi, what are Dutch hotels going to do?
I fear what this approach may mean for Dutch hotels, and business travel in the country generally, if the legislation is adopted. The Netherlands is a major international transport hub, as well as an important business venue in itself. Connectivity has become critical to modern business; the moment we start to let clumsy or unnecessary legislation get in the way of creating an environment conducive to business and economic recovery then something is clearly wrong.
I completely understand the end towards which these changes are aiming – clearly, copyright infringement is a crime– but the means are all wrong. There must be better ways of detecting and punishing copyright infringement without punishing honest business travellers, surely?
Welcome to the Hotel ISP. Please Enjoy Your Stay. >>
Monday, July 26th, 2010
René Hendrikse, Vice President, Northern Europe
René Hendrikse, Vice President, Northern Europe
With a history of a century and a half of innovation, from a riverside paper mill in southwestern Finland to a global telecommunications leader, Nokia is now recognized as the 5th most valued brand in the world. Headquartered in Espoo, Finland, the company is named after the Nokia River in southern Finland, next to which the original Nokia pulp mill was located.
Keeping a workforce of over 120,000 people worldwide working as a connected enterprise is a huge challenge for any company. For Nokia, with mobility at the core of its DNA, it is a matter of reputation. Back in 2005, Nokia partnered with iPass to give its growing community of remote and mobile employees the best out-of-office experience available.
Nokia has always been an early technology adopter and really bought into our vision of zero-touch connectivity and mobility management platform. Their decision to deploy the iPass Open Mobile client as the company-wide connection manager of choice for all of Nokia’s employees worldwide, working remotely or via on-campus Wi-Fi in the workplace, ultimately allows them to deliver their own enterprise mobility service uniquely tailored to meet the requirements of the workforce. Some of the key benefits include:
- Consistent, simple, connection manager for all of Nokia’s employees worldwide, working remotely or via on-campus Wi-Fi in the workplace
- Location-aware connectivity client instantly connects employees to the best available network based on preset policies including their location, 3G availability, and department and role within the organization
- Access to the world’s largest Wi-Fi network with over 143,000 Wi-Fi hotspots
- Faster collaboration via Global Wi-Fi for Voice over IP powered by iPass Mobile Network
- Deployment of unique cost control policies using iPass Mobile Control
Read what Teemu Hokkanen, Product Manager at Nokia had to say about the iPass Open Mobile Platform in the press release.
iPass: Connecting Nokia >>
