In Austin, there's a handful of coffee shops (and a few bars) that offer free wireless access. The hardware is dirt cheap; administration is minimal, and $50 per month for internet access is not much to cover for a larger coffeeshop.
Their premise is that the cost of the DSL and hardware is far outweighed by the number of people that come in to use the internet, and feel obligated to buy coffee. For the most part, this seems to be true. People are more likely to frequent these homebrew coffeeshops (rather than starbucks, etc). Even a few bars have jumped on the bandwagon, hoping to attract the lunchtime tech-friendly crowd. These free access points have the added benefit of forcing large coffeeshops to reconsider their dreadful "T-moblile" $10/hour business model.
In short, the free model has been very benificial for everyone involved (except T-mobile:) ). Your experiences may vary; Austin is a rather tech-friendly town with a high population of laptops, but I encourage you to try and keep it free.
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In Austin, there's a handful of coffee shops (and a few bars) that offer free wireless access. The hardware is dirt cheap; administration is minimal, and $50 per month for internet access is not much to cover for a larger coffeeshop.
:) ). Your experiences may vary; Austin is a rather tech-friendly town with a high population of laptops, but I encourage you to try and keep it free.
Their premise is that the cost of the DSL and hardware is far outweighed by the number of people that come in to use the internet, and feel obligated to buy coffee. For the most part, this seems to be true. People are more likely to frequent these homebrew coffeeshops (rather than starbucks, etc). Even a few bars have jumped on the bandwagon, hoping to attract the lunchtime tech-friendly crowd. These free access points have the added benefit of forcing large coffeeshops to reconsider their dreadful "T-moblile" $10/hour business model.
In short, the free model has been very benificial for everyone involved (except T-mobile