Are you looking to understand the cost of temporary WiFi for events?
Then you’ve come to the right place. Of course, it’s not a completely straightforward question, but one we can certainly help to guide you on. After all, it’s good to have an expectation, right?
In this article, we address the factors that affect the temporary WiFi for events cost and walk you through what you can do to keep your costs to a minimum.
But how do we know what we’re talking about?
Well, we supply event WiFi to some of the largest, and some of the smallest events out there. From Badminton Horse Trials and Henley Regatta, at the more complex end, through to Festival in the Park at the smaller end.
We’ve been in the event WiFi industry since 2014 have have seen demands rise, technology develop, and the. market change.
So, we have a good understanding of how we price, the cost of different levels of technology, and how others price their jobs. And we’re happy to share our learnings.
So, now we’ve addressed that, let’s get to the nitty gritty. “How much does temporary WiFi for events cost?”
Smaller events
- The production team – who may need to access emails, online SaaS tools, social media etc.
- Your traders who need to take payments.
- A few VIPs or influencers in the industry.
With these relatively straightforward WiFi requirements, your costs are going to be lower for the following reasons:
1. The installation is relatively fast – you may only require half a day to 1 day of installation time.
2. The technology demands are pretty small. Your provider will need to consider how they’re going to access the internet, and then distribute the internet across your event site. Providing this is all quite simple a single 4G/5G connection or Satellite can do the job, with wireless access points strategically positioned across the site.
Cost-wise you may expect to pay around £2,500 for an event (normally 1-3 days).
Medium events
When we think of medium events, we look at larger, more complex sites with more reliance on the WiFi. This could be because the event puts a high importance on revenue generation. Events that have multiple traders all relying on faster payments will need to put more emphasis on the quality of the WiFi.
In the increasingly cashless event world, at Wireless Solutions we’re seeing an increasing demand for High Availability.
High availability offers your event site a second internet connection, with a second switch, that can automatically detect when an internet connection goes down. The solution routes the traffic through the internet connection that’s working so you never even notice that one’s gone offline for a few seconds.
You know when you’re working away and your internet drops off for a few seconds? Well, that doesn’t happen with high availability. We’ve seen it in the workplace, now it’s in the event field. Some medium-sized events are reaping the rewards – if they’re lucky enough to have the right supplier with the right technology.
When it comes to cost, this high availability won’t cost significantly more. Sure there’s an investment in the kit, but over time that pays for itself by the repeat custom of having such brilliant tech. But, the increased costs of medium sized events comes with the added resource.
Installing 2 internet connections, running fibre optic cables across the site to connect the main core switches, and installing more access points across a larger site, all take more time. And the cost goes up.
A mid-sized event can cost £10,000-£15,000 for a temporary WiFi solution.
Large events
Event WiFi solutions for large events can use multiple internet sources to get enough coverage to a site where there are thousands of people. From fixed fibre, to Satellite and 4G/5G, it’s how those internet sources are utilised across the WiFi network which is where the expertise lies.
Again, high availability tends to be a critical component of large event WiFi. Many providers just won’t have the enterprise-level technology to enable them to support such requirements.
Read more on how to achieve robust WiFi at large events.
When it comes to cost, the installation time for large events can amount to a team being on site for weeks, running cables, installing access points, configuring networks and testing resilience.
The cost of event WiFi at large events can be up to £100,000 (and more).
The added extras with WiFi costs
Support
Remote support is an option, but it tends to be more viable when you have a high availability solution that will require less support. The better the technology, the less you’ll have to spend on support services. What we’re really saying is that it can be cheaper to opt for a slightly more expensive WiFi service, as you can save on support costs.
Accommodation
WiFi providers will factor in expenses like accommodation to your cost because these are unavoidable event costs that need to be covered. But if you have an estate that can provide accommodation for the engineers, or can get a local agreement with a hotel or BnB then this is a great way to reduce costs. It’s always worth looking for local WiFi providers too for smaller events as this can be quite a significant proportion of the price.
Changes to the requirement
Changes to this requirement will increase the costs, as plans change and work has to be re-done, more cables run, positioning of equipment is moved, and all of this co-ordinated with other service providers such as power.
Try to get your brief fully scoped out before engaging with your WiFi provider on planning the build, but don’t leave it too late!
Bespoke requirements
Additional requirements – like having guest WiFi that works with specific codes, using WiFi time allocations or introducing certain internet restrictions, can increase costs.
We’re seeing events increasingly wanting to use WiFi networks for marketing data capture. This introduces the need to adhere to compliance regulations and can also require bespoke software development.
Summary
Hopefully, we’ve given you a good feel here of the range of costs of temporary WiFi for events, and explained some of the ways costs can be increased, or saved. Regardless of cost, event WiFi is hugely important for event organizers looking to improve the revenue generated on-site to get right.
We’d be very happy to support you in working out a cost for your event, just drop us an email or call us on 01189 919664 and we’d be happy to chat.
