Free Wi-Fi at airports, browsing just got easier.

Soon the Premier Airport Network will open across 20 US airports offering its users free, yes, I said free Wi-Fi. Thanks to a deal with MediaShift, browsers will now be able to log on and utilise the free Wi-Fi. The only catch? During the consumers browsing time various paid adverts will appear.

Genius? Absolutely. What a better way to capture your target audience than when they’re cashing in on the free Wi-Fi scrolling through the social networking sites telling everyone where they’re going? Or the business men and women finishing off that last minute document using their current smart phone, cue pop up, oh look, there’s a new version and I can buy it on sale at the shop I’m about to walk in to? Again, genius.

Obviously, to the consumer the constantly stream of advertising can feel like an invasion of their privacy. But with the average traveller’s airport browsing session already at 57 minutes, the introduction of free Wi-Fi can only increase this time further.

“MediaShift provides the technology at no cost to the airports," Brendon Kensel, MediaShift's president, told Mashable. "For the first time, airports can participate in ad revenues that have traditionally eluded last mile online access providers. Airports receive incremental revenue with no start-up costs, investment or capital expenditure for airports.”

So what does this mean for companies around the selected airports? The potential to offer specific discounts, rates or offers. To promote the latest hotel or restaurant opening. Give clips of the shows, concerts and exhibitions in the city? And all while the consumer is relaxing waiting to board their flight.

For the consumer, the reduction in their data costs could mean the option to utilise the latest offer, consider the new technology the ad is talking about and even make a purchase.

They also have the capability to work at the airport. Those dead hours, waiting to board and clocking up the data charges can now be used to complete work, prepare for the next meeting and even conduct the actual meeting.

The Wi-Fi revolution is here, at the airport, on the plane itself, have airports become the new mobile office?

The year that was 2012

What a year for team APC. With two finalist nominations and a win at the East of England Business Champions Awards, a further two finalist nominations at the Colchester Business Awards, the main corporate sponsor for the Essex Countywide Awards and finally, sponsoring the Business Woman of the Year category at the Mid Essex Awards – APC had a busy year on the business awards circuit.

At the East of England Business Champions Awards, Lee Collis, Technical Project Manager, scooped Employee of the Year and Group Sales Director; David Bell was nominated for Business person of the Year. A tremendous achievement for APC’s first year of entering these awards.

APC first established its relationship with the Essex Business Awards when David Bell won Business Man of the Year at the 2011 Mid Essex Awards. Since then APC has gone on to be nominated at further awards throughout 2011 and 2012.

The Countywide Business Awards gave APC the opportunity to raise money for a charity close to its Director David Bell’s heart, The Starlight Foundation. On the night of the awards attendees raised in excess of £2500 for the charity. A tremendous achievement and one that will benefit David’s son’s school friend, Joshua, who suffers with a brain tumour.

2012 also saw APC continue its expansion in South Africa. APC has continued to deliver wireless projects across South Africa including working for renowned wine manufacture, Rupert Wines.

In the latter part of 2012, APC started to expand its operations in to the Middle East, by collaborating with strategic partners in Qatar. The success of the partnerships allowed APC to expand its global network further, by developing a Middle East Business Team, which would continue to raise APC’s profile and secure future projects.

APC also expanded its UK based team with the addition of Nigel Cappleman, as Business Development Manager and Harry Woolmore as a Wireless Engineer. Its UK based team not only plans and deploys UK projects but also travels to the company’s satellite offices to secure new business and work closely with the territory Directors. APC believes this is fundamental to its success, having a global team that interacts and evolves the company with knowledge of all its territories.

Undertaking several high profile projects for household names including the likes of Tiptree Jams, The Harrods Group, Fulham Football Club and Poundland, APC has worked with wireless manufacturers Cambium Networks and Ruckus to deploy wireless networks across the country. 2012 also saw APC secure a wireless project for ‘The Shard’, the tallest building in Western Europe.

2012 really was a great year for APC and we look forward to a successful 2013 ahead. 

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Cambium Networks wins award

APC Solutions first formed its relationship with Cambium Networks, which was previously known as Motorola and prior to this Orthogon Systems in 2002. APC is now a Platinum partner in the UK carrying Cambium’s entire point to point and point to multi point wireless range.

Cambium Networks has just been named the 2012 Manufacturer of the Year by the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. This prestigious accolade is awarded for product innovation and outstanding contributions to WISPA and the fixed wireless broadband industry.

Cambium was awarded its award at the annual WISPAPALOOZA conference at the South Point Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

APC Solutions works closely with Cambium to install wireless networks around the globe. With its satellite offices in South Africa and North America and with further expansion to the Middle East in 2013, APC is ensuring its clients can not only see results in the UK but also, globally.

In the current challenging economic times, investing in your company’s connectivity can seem the last thing on an ever growing to do list. But, with Cambiums technology installed, planned and deployed by APC Solutions, ROI can be achieved in a matter of years compared with an alternative lease line agreement.

Speaking about Cambium’s award, David Bell, APC Solutions Group Sales Director comments: “Having worked with Cambium, previously known as Motorola, for many years we have seen firsthand how the company has grown and expanded across the wireless market. Its products offer the best connectivity and reliability allowing APC to install networks even in the most challenging of circumstances. Where other products can fall short, we can always rely on Cambium products to complete the job. The award is greatly deserved and we look forward to continuing our relationship with the company as we further expand ours.”

Welcome to the 4G revolution

The 4G revolution is soon to be on its way and APC Solutions thinks about time to. With UK consumers spending over £50 billion on internet shopping in 2010, mobile networks needed to ensure their piece of the pie is safe.

In this time-starved society, the UK consumer demands instantaneous access to everything at the click of a button or swipe of a screen. Need your weekly shop, swipe the screen. Need to order flowers for that forgotten birthday, swipe the screen. Need to transfer money, swipe and it is there. Need to send that report to your boss, update, swipe and send. There are over 12.8 million smartphones in use in the UK and consumers are thirsty for sites that operate without chaining them to a laptop. APC Solutions equips its staff with the latest mobile technology to ensure data and information can be fed back to and responded to far quicker than waiting to log in from the laptop. This in itself plays a vital role in keeping business on track, the ability to do this even faster? Even better.

Gone are the days of waiting an eternity for the standard online version of a page to load, even when you have a 3G signal. Now, there is an app or mobile friendly site for almost everything the consumer needs, often making it a shock to see a non-mobile version of a popular retailer. UK mobile internet sales could double in the next few years. By 2013, mobile internet sales could reach as much as £275m, 4% of online retail spending.*

And not to mention the need to socially interact though our phone. Gone is the time when a simple text will do. Now, it is a constant stream of information fed though social networks. Checking in at each bar you visit on a Friday night to gain your free drink or meet with your friends. Updating your status while watching the Olympics and setting the latest athlete trending. Or even, commenting on that photo of a certain person caught enjoying themselves whilst on vacation. How many of us forgo the morning paper choosing to read the latest news on Twitter as it happens rather than five hours later or even the next day in print. And how many businesses, including APC Solutions use a mobile device to update its customers with the latest news, views and goings on rather than sending out newsletters or hard copy reports when it can do this faster online.

So, just what is 4G and how will it benefit the standard mobile user? Well, it is all about speed. 4G downloads will be up to up to 20x faster than 3G enabling you to download an album in under 1 minute compared to 5 minutes with 3G. Or a film in 10 minutes as opposed to an hour with 3G.

Amazon launched its new 4G Kindle in LA this week, which offers a full year of 4G LTE service for just $50. However, 4G is not yet available in the UK. Everything Everywhere, the amalgamation of T Mobile and Orange is investing £1.5bn to instrument a 4G network in the later part of 2012. 4G is already available across the United States, Canada, Russia, Australia, Brazil and parts of Europe as well as others Including India, Angola and of course Hong Kong.

So why is the UK so slow on the uptake? The role out to 4G has been in the pipeline with Ofcom working towards an auction process due to start in the later part of 2012, early 2013. 4G runs across airwaves and will need to coincide with the traditional 2G and 3G frequencies. There is also the investment and the possibility of the 4G frequency interfering with digital transmissions. This can be easily rectified but of course, demands a body to deal with and educate users to re tune their frequencies.

However, over 82% of people polled by Everything Everywhere believe that 4G is vital for Britain. And, with the UK internet economy valued at over 100bn per year and growing at a steady 10% year on year, who can blame them?

To read more visit the APC Solutions website www.apcsolutionsuk.com or follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/apcsolutionsuk or like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/APCSolutionsUK

*(Verdict & Ovum, 2010)