Using www.jwire.com I found 305 hotspots for Denver, 184 hotspots for Salt Lake City, and 75 hotspots for Santa Fe.  I then tried www.openwifispots.com.  On that site I found 219 hotspots for Denver, 114 hotspots for Salt Lake City, and 41 hotspots for Santa Fe.  I was a little surprised the number of available hotspots for each city varied so much according to which site is used.  I am assuming that the accuracy of the number and location of hotspots is determined by the accuracy of the information and how often the information is updated as hotspots come and go at different location.

At first glance, it seems that there are a lot of options to locate wifi hotspots in all of the target cities.  A casual user out having coffee or grabbing something to eat would not have much difficulty finding a spot to access the Internet.  SalesTek salespeople, on the other hand, do not have the luxury of time to be able to wander around the city from hotspot to hotspot whenever they need to conduct business.  Their clients and potential clients are not going to patiently wait for them to find a working hotspot in order to conduct business.  In order to compete with other companies whose salespeople have mobile wifi capabilities, SalesTek will have to equip their salespeople with the same or similar resources.

One way to enable their sales force to have constant internet access would be to provide each salesperson with a satellite modem.  These modems are expensive (the prices I saw varied from about $500 to over $1,000.  They are relatively reliable and the speed is relatively fast.  There are downsides to using satellite internet though.  Cloud cover and rain can cause the signal to weaken, slow down, drop packets, or be broken altogether.  Monthly fees for satellite internet vary from $50 to over $100 per user.  While this is an option, it would be rather expensive and probably not as reliable as a busy sales force would need.  I think a better option would be to provide iPhones or a similar smart phone to each salesperson.  By subscribing to a business plan with enough lines to equip each salesperson with a phone and internet access, everyone could stay connected at all times.  I would make sure that the plan and phones I chose had the capability to act as a miniature hotspot.  This would enable the salespeople to use their laptops by connecting to the hotspot their cell phones provide.  It is infinitely easier to work on a laptop application than trying to use a small-screened cell phone to quickly and accurately provide information and close a sale.

Without actually having or signing up for a “business” cell phone plan, I was not able to get pricing for a set number of phones, lines, and internet access.  Browsing different cell phone providers I did, however, get some prices for individual plans.  The prices vary quite a bit, but all seem to be very reasonable for the services offered.  Monthly fees start at $25 for a decent amount of internet usage and go up to about $40 for unlimited access.  I am sure that a business or enterprise plan could be purchased for a reasonable monthly fee.  All phones would be registered and paid for by SalesTek and salespeople would be able to stay connected as long as there is cell service in the area they are trying to access the Internet.  Different carriers may be needed in different cities depending on the connectivity, speed, and availability of 3G or 4G service (whichever one is best suited for the applications being used).