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Hotspot cash accumulation: you won't guess how much you can make

Attentive readers may have noticed a new feature of NewsWireless; the blog. It was in the process of creating this section that we tidied up the old "links" section and put all the old, historic items into "news" - and discovered a few things that needed verifying. And Wireless Orbit was one of them.

It turns out that although I had it tagged as a source of hotspots, there's more to it. It's actually a site that signs up people with hotspots into the Orbit network, and signs up customers for those hotspots.

OK (I thought) I have a hotspot. It's not an official hotspot, but I don't mind sticking my office network onto the list, especially in exchange for a little money each month. There are, after all, at least four of my neighbours who are without wireless, since I installed WEP security in January... and so I opened up the "sign up" page.

At first, I saw what seemed to be a promise of fifty bucks income a month.

"Welcome to Wireless Orbit's Wireless Hotspot Solution. <1/>Your total monthly fee is assessed based on the number of locations (Access Controllers) you plan to deploy your Wireless Internet Service. Our monthly fee per location is $49.99" - followed by some guff about "you'll get a better price."

Closer reading showed a reference to providing my Amex details.

Let me get this right: I bring my investment in backhaul and equipment to the party, and I PAY THEM to provide it to others?