"T-Mobile USA disclosed user statistics from its Wi-Fi business for the first time Monday, reporting that 450,000 customers have paid to access the wireless Internet service in the past three months.
The cell phone company declined to provide a year-ago customer tally for comparison, but did release figures showing a sharp increase in usage for the service, which provides high-speed Internet access for laptops at locations such as Starbucks coffee shops, airports and hotels.
For example, T-Mobile Hotspot users are staying online an average of 64 minutes per login in 2005, up from 45 minutes last year and 23 minutes in 2003. The total number of log-ins has totaled 3 million in the past three months, vs. about 8 million in all of 2004."
[Orlando Sentinel]
According to T-Mobile's Hot site, a pay as you go data plan for 60 minutes of usage will cost you $6. If all 450k users signed up for the $6 pay as you go plan (some probably opt for the $29.99 / month national plan), that's only a $2.7M business and that's a money losing proposition for T-Mobile for all the capital and marketing that has been invested into the hotspot launch.
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