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The Case for Free WiFi?

Posted by Cliff on from the 802.11-packets-want-to-be-free dept.

lgreco writes "Recently I was trying to convince a business man who is about to open an Internet Cafe, to provide WiFi at no charge. I argued about increased business and royalty and proposed that the infrastructure cost these days is reasonable and the recurring cost, along with the amortized payoff of the initial investment, can be recovered by adding a few cents to each beverage, etc. In spite of the numerous discussions on the merits of free WiFi v. paid at coffee shops, restaurants, etc, I was interested in hearing what do you think about the issue and if there are solid examples of successful businesses that offered free WiFi." If you were going to argue for or against this issue, what arguments would you use? "A lot of proprietors seem to be concerned about the maintenance issue. Not so much about the hardware maintenance than software: auditing etc. Some are also concerned about legal ramifications if their customers are caught downloading music or movies illegally.

I am not aware of any Internet cafe or similar business that got hit by our beloved RIAA but what if their lawyers subpoena a small proprietor for download records? If you are running a shoestring infrastructure with a cable modem with an Airport base station what kind of logs could you possibly proviide? If a kid walks in for a lemonade and starts downloading porn what do you tell the parents when they sent their lawyer to pay you a visit?

It would seem that if you let a provider offer the WiFi service at your place of business for a fee, they can deal with liabilities, maintenance etc, so this is one less thing to worry about when setting up the business. Yet expecting your customers to pay $6-$10/hr for WiFi is so ridiculous and such a turn off for them."

12 of 576 comments (clear)

  1. My Wife by hexed_2050 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd get my wife to argue with him. Somehow she won the arguement to delete WoW from my hd.

    --
    Valkyrie is about to die! Wizard needs food -- badly!
  2. free beer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Charge for the Wi-Fi and make the beer free.

  3. I argued about increased business and royalty by mmmuttly · · Score: 2, Funny

    I argued about increased business and royalty and proposed that the infrastructure cost these days is reasonable Lemme get this straight - You put in WiFi and suddenly royalty wants to patronize your coffee shop? Who knew the Queen Mum was into wireless? Is she a java junky and the whole tea thing is just for the tourists? Hell, she's probably lurking on Shashdot as we speak, waiting to drag out some "In Soviet Russia..." cliche.

    1. Re:I argued about increased business and royalty by toph42 · · Score: 2, Funny

      In Soviet Russia, WiFi freed you! Oh wait...

    2. Re:I argued about increased business and royalty by JimBobJoe · · Score: 2, Funny

      The coffee shop owner may be thinking: "I only have seating for 12 people. If 5 people sit here for an hour, sucking up my bandwidth...where will the other customers sit?"

      I remember reading somewhere that McDonald's had purposefully designed the seating in its restaurants to become uncomfortable after about 10-15 minutes. They don't want people hanging about (and they definitely don't want homeless hanging about. Wendy's has more comfortable seating, and I see homeless in there all the time.)

  4. Re:Observations at a local Coffeeshop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    talk about your 'no internet' tables... In an internet cafe - or anywhere else - can you imagine how friggin' COOL it would be to have a few tables inside a faraday cage?

  5. Re:Panera... by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 2, Funny

    People are probably more likely to drop $50 on beer over the course of sitting there than they are to drop $50 on coffee, too.

    Though my coding gets pretty sloppy after a few pints of Bass or glasses of wine.

  6. The problem of people who stay too long by Zeinfeld · · Score: 2, Funny
    Panera have a solution to the crowding problem, they turn off the WiFi at lunch time. We go there every Monday while the cleaners are doing the house. We do not spend any longer now they have WiFi than before but I do go at other times during the week and I frequently hold business meetings at Paneras.

    If a coffee shop has a problem with people who stay too long they need to look at what they do at peep shows. They should have a Faraday cage around each seat with a little flap that stays open while you feed coins into the meter. As soon as your time runs out you get shut off.

    --
    Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
    Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
  7. Re:Panera... by prgrmr · · Score: 4, Funny

    Plus the added entertainment value of wathing the cheapskates in the business suits digging through the trash for coffee cups with unused WiFi logins!

  8. Re:A simple solution by perlwolf · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thats what the jokers did at a Panera near my former apartment in Chicago suburbs, so I started frequenting another Panera branch where they had power outlets... who wants to pay $8 for a sandwich when you're going to use WiFi for only 90 minutes? :)

  9. You could do the opposite... by Timewinder · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think it would be nice to have a "work free" place to go to.

    I can just see it now...

    Now at Local Coffee Place!
    No Internet!
    Crappy Cell Phone reception!
    No Loud Music!
    Nice soft seats!
    No Work!

    God that would be great (just like my basement though.)

  10. No worries by Neoncow · · Score: 2, Funny

    Those people will be dead by the end of the day.