I now come to expect that local businesses provide free WiFi.
Am I being a little bit spoiled? Probably. I need to check myself.
What are your thoughts?
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I now come to expect that local businesses provide free WiFi.
Am I being a little bit spoiled? Probably. I need to check myself.
What are your thoughts?
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[…] 2010San Diego airport just became one of my favorite airports since they apparently offer free wifi.I am so spoiled.Related PostsAbout the Author /**/ John Saddington John is the Chief Editor @ The 8BIT Network and […]
Brandon says
I say a resounding “yes”. ๐
I’m the Director of Technology for a church planting focused nonprofit in Africa. We are based in South Africa, and my wife and I have only been here for about 6 months and miss access to internet like we had in the states. Few businesses here have wifi, and those that do charge quite a bit for access (I’ve seen as high as 10/hour).
We wish we still had the access though ๐
dave miers says
in sydney, australia – you can find it, but we’re definitely not spoilt for choice!!
the few places that offer it, it’s often sketchy.
mcdonald’s offers it, but it’s even sketchier!
Matthew Snider says
Yes, yes we are. Although I work in an IT division of a large Baltimore Hospital and we do NOT have wifi ๐
Adam shields says
I am going to say no. We have a culture that is Internet dependent and we are in the transition time to ubiquitous Internet that is with everyone from our past tethered internet (phone line or Ethernet based). These businesses are helping provide the transition much like businesses that had payphones did in the past.
There will always be those that don’t participate but if you depend on the Internet then you won’t go there. I carry a wireless hotspot with me so I don’t depend on someone else’s Internet. And the places that charge are the ones that cater to business (airports, higher end hotels, etc.). The rest just give it away because it is a draw not a money maker. I have seen a couple articles that suggest that it is more expensive for star bucks to bill for Internet that it was to just give it away.
Kyle Reed says
I absolutely am spoiled with free wifi and not to mention fast free wifi.
There is a local coffee shop that has free wifi but it is so slow it really is pointless. I stopped going there for that reason. Kind of funny really that it would make me upset enough to never go back, but it did.
I definitely think I am spoiled with free wifi. Especially when I am use to being able to be on the internet all the time with my phone etc…
But i do think as people continue to move things online there should be more places with free wifi.
BenJPickett says
I would say yes. In my opinion it has gotten to the point where we expect this service.
Should we? Absolutely not. It is the companies decision and we should not base our experience off of the lack of this. If said company offers an outstanding primary product and no wifi, why can’t we just enjoy them for that product? Should there business suffer because they didn’t want to be an ISP to 4 or 5 neighboring businesses and anyone that happens to be driving by or sitting in the parking lot?
There is an expense and a liability that comes from offering a service of this sort. Not establishing security correctly for a small outfit that does book keeping and everything else on the same network exposes them to possible bank fraud and host of other potential issues. Wireless routers or access points that handle QOS well enough to support all the potential clients efficiently aren’t something that should generally be picked up at Best Buy. There are more things that need to be considered with the physical setup as in you want to make sure that the connection will be solid throughout the entire building and will that require extra WAPs?
Chris Rouse says
I guess this is why places like Atlanta Bread Company and another coffee place I went to password protect their free wi-fi. Still, it annoyed me enough to switch to my phone and just use 3G to get my work done since it wasn’t anything intensive. I’d rather be inconvenienced by my own technology than have to get up and go ask for the wireless password apparently.