Surf for free at a shopping mall near you

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

The free internet access model is alive and well - as long as you are prepared to do your surfing in shopping centres.

Penrose internet kiosk operator Zip Internet and car sales portal Autozoom have started a year-long trial that will provide broadband access free to shoppers at four shopping malls in Auckland.

Zip's sales and marketing director, Rajiv Bhandari, said the free kiosks - at the AMP-owned Botany Town Centre and at Westfield's St Lukes, Manukau and Glenfield malls - would provide an "always-on" wireless broadband connection subject to an "etiquette limit" of 15 minutes a user.

Bhandari said Zip was abandoning its coin-operated model because monthly cash takings had been disappointing. "You are looking at a maximum of $400 to $500 a month, even in the most strategic sites."

But the free model was allowing Zip to cover its costs with one anchor advertiser.

Autozoom was paying $2500 a month for each kiosk painted in its livery, and Zip would draw additional revenue from 10 advertiser website links, which cost between $400 and $800 a month.

"Zfree and i4free have come and gone, but this model is sustainable because the advertising is largely pre-sold," said Bhandari.

Autozoom director Tim Reedy said the kiosk was an ideal method of interacting with its customers.

His company sold about 25 cars a week from a website which acted as an online showroom for 50 car dealers.

"We were looking for a way people could talk to us on their own terms," he said.

"When people are buying a car they are asking very simple questions: what do I want, what would it cost and where do I find it?

"Websites are very good for this purpose, but if people don't have the internet at home you have got a limited market."

Reedy said such customers could send an email from the terminal to arrange for Autozoom to phone them, or they could note down the car reference number from the website and phone the company's call centre.

Bhandari said the terminals would provide full access to the web - except to around 300,000 pornographic sites, which had been blocked.

"Considering the locations we have been very careful about that."