Ever wondered if you’re paying for the bed linen or the Wi-Fi? The network-analysing super-wonks at OpenSignal have crunched through some data about public Wi-Fi, and analysed in detail the network performance in different hotel rooms. Here’s how your room price and download speed are linked.
By probing its database of large hotel chain Wi-Fi results and comparing the data with price data gathered from a 2012 consumer report for room fees, OpenSignal was able plot Wi-Fi speed against cheapest room price. There’s a very strong correlation here between the two — as you can see in the graph above. But there are some interesting insights at the outliers:
One of the most interesting results is the difference between the two Disney Wi-Fis, ‘Disney-Guest’ and ‘In-room Guest Wi-Fi (Disney)’ which we assigned the same price value. The Disney in-room guest Wi-Fi is our biggest outlier, the second slowest of our qualifying networks at 1.56Mbps despite the high room price. This shows that the Wi-Fi Disney offer to their park guests is greatly outperforming the in-room Wi-Fi enjoyed by the guests in their hotels. Our data suggests that the reason for the slow in-room Wi-Fi speed is because it is throttled to 3 Mbps.
You can go check out the full report over at OpenSignal. It makes for interesting reading. Of course, you can always check out your hotel’s Wi-Fi before you arrive, if you’re so inclined. [OpenSignal]