A number of cafes and restaurants in Detroit and its suburbs are offering hotspots: This story cites a number of cases where the hotspots really helped or in once case basically saved a business. One cafe in Grosse Point was really struggling to attract customers. Since it put up a hotspot, its business is eight times better. Also, the cafe is offering some innovative services over the network. For example, cafe workers film musicians who perform in the cafe and Webcast them online. The idea is to give the artists online exposure. That's a great idea and may encourage more or better performers to want to perform at the cafe, which in turn could attract more customers to the cafe. The more cafes that offer free Wi-Fi, the more they may have to develop such innovative ideas to differentiate their location from another cafe down the road.
All of the hotspots noted in this story are free to access. Detroit is also working on building hotspots downtown.