Kachingle is a way for regular readers to support this site, as well as others they visit frequently.
Receive new posts as email.
| Sun | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
This site operates as an independent editorial operation. Advertising, sponsorships, and other non-editorial materials represent the opinions and messages of their respective origins, and not of the site operator.
Entire site and all contents except otherwise noted © Copyright 2001-2010 by Glenn Fleishman. Some images ©2006 Jupiterimages Corporation. All rights reserved. Please contact us for reprint rights. Linking is, of course, free and encouraged.
Powered by
Movable Type
I somehow missed a significant change in Starbucks revised rewards program launched last December: In the initial announcements from Starbucks about a reworking of its discount card (eliminated) and rewards attached to its stored-value Starbucks Card (revamped into tiers), I reported on 3 November 2009 that new card users would have to make five purchases to reach a new "Green" level, and be able to use two continuous hours of Wi-Fi each day at no cost, along with a bunch of free beverage add-ons. I also wrote that Wi-Fi access was enabled only for 30 days following the use of card. Neither turned out to be true in the program that launched.
But when I checked a couple of days ago for a forthcoming article in The Seattle Times, I found different verbiage--in fact, two different sets. On the main rewards page, Starbucks said the deal was as above; on the FAQ, the Wi-Fi deal was much simpler. After a couple of days of finding the right person at Starbucks, I've got the answer: the program changed, and they didn't make a fuss about it.
The deal as it stands requires just obtaining a Starbucks Card and making a single purchase or adding $5 to the card's balance, which qualifies you for the "Welcome" level. You must then register the card, and sign up for an AT&T account. After that, Wi-Fi is free for two successive hours a day. No further purchases are needed. The Web site is being fixed (you're welcome).
That's much closer to free than Starbucks has offered before, and a big turnaround from what it was promoting in its FAQ in November.
It's nearly free, even.
A huge swath of AT&T customers as well as Qwest DSL customers get access to Starbucks all day, every day, at no additional cost.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 2:08 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Free, Hot Spot | No Comments
Skype is promoting its Skype Access pay-per-minute Wi-Fi option by making it free this weekend: From the start 20 March (0000 GMT) to the end of 21 March (2359 GMT), you can use Skype Access to access 100,000 hotspots worldwide at no cost. The service, available since last July, must just have left beta testing, even though it was unclear to me that it wasn't a released service.
Skype Access uses Skype software to handle a Wi-Fi login transaction, and normally costs (including Luxembourg's VAT) US$0.22, Cdn$0.26, €0.16 per minute; fees are debited from the Skype Credit in your account. Skype itself is a free download and free to use for Skype-to-Skype IM, file transfer, audio chat, and video chat.
That's expensive in the U.S., where you can pay $10/mo for unlimited Boingo Wireless service at the same or more locations, and where $8 to $12 is the most you'd pay for 24 hours (the equivalent of about 30 to 60 minutes at Skype's per-minute rate).
However, elsewhere in the world, being able to get 10 minutes of Wi-Fi for a couple bucks might seem much more appealing without having a service plan or paying ludicrous European hotel prices, which can be $20 to $40 per night.
A full list of supported hotspots networks is available.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:09 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Free, Hot Spot, International, Roaming | No Comments
Amtrak's promise last year of putting Internet service in Acela trains happened quite quickly: For a chronically underfunded government-like operation, Amtrak managed to get Wi-Fi installed fast in its Northeast high-speed Acela line after it said it planned to do so. The service, free for the interim, is in all 20 Acela trains. Amtrak has also made Wi-Fi service free in the six stations that serve Acela, and in Acela lounges. (The Wilmington Station will get unwired when renovations are completed in early 2011.)
Amtrak may wind up using Wi-Fi as yet another tool to bring passengers out of the air and onto the ground. With Wi-Fi at no cost in stations and on trains, the rail operator could use that as a marketing campaign against $7 to $10 per day airport and $5 to 13 per flight airline Internet access, where that's available.
Nomad Digital and GBS Group built the service out. Nomad has a many year history of train-Fi. Nomad and competitor Icomera are responsible for most of the train-based Internet access in the world. A few other firms have disappeared during that time or exited the business.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 1:19 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Free, Rails | No Comments
The Massport authority voted to keep Wi-Fi free at Boston's Logan Airport: Following several weeks of Google-sponsored free Wi-Fi, the transportation authority is going to eat the cost of funding its provider to keep no-cost Internet access at Logan International Airport.
Logan joins a small number of the country's busiest airports that offer free Wi-Fi, with Denver in the lead. Seattle-Tacoma (Seatac) decided to go free this year following Google's winter promotion, and Atlanta is looking into the costs of dropping fees. Slightly smaller airports are much more likely to have no-cost Wi-Fi, including Portland (Oregon), Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Sacramento.
Logan's Wi-Fi sessions sextupled during the Google-underwritten period, no surprise to those of us who have followed the fee/free debate for years. The Logan vote will cover two years of free service.
Many dozens of airports still charge for service, the vast majority with service from Boingo Wireless, and a smaller number run by AT&T and T-Mobile. I would never have suspect the race to free up service in big airports, because reports are clear that it's a revenue-positive business, and there's a captive audience.
However, just like hotels saw a total erosion of long-distance revenue when people started carrying cell phones with good roaming and included-minutes plans, so, too, may airports be watching the 3G writing on the wall. If you've got an iPhone, a BlackBerry, a Nexus One, or a laptop with a 3G card, you're not paying the airport for usage. Providing free service may allow an airport to appear to be an amenity provider, sweep in good will from those who have no 3G service, and be a distraction during long waits.
I confess to being surprised to see this trend continue. A captive audience is usually held as somewhat price insensitive, but 3G seems to have tilted that balance quite a bit.
A large increase in use needs to be accompanied by a large increase in Internet backhaul, and I'm curious if any regular Boston travelers have noticed a difference.
Those with moderately good recall will remember Massport as the originator of a multi-year FCC action against Continental, which had the temerity to allow free Internet service within its paid member lounges. Massport made piles of specious arguments, which boiled down to, "it's our property, darn it!" The FCC smacked down Massport way back in November 2006 (see "FCC Smacks Down Boston-Logan's Dubious Wi-Fi Claims"), dismissing all the arguments. The FCC is the sole entity that gets to decide proper use of spectrum in the US.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 12:37 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Air Travel, Free | No Comments
McDonald's previously announced plan to stop charging for Wi-Fi access in its restaurants goes into effect today: The quick-service chain formerly charged $2.95 for two hours of service, although AT&T customers got access at no cost, and there were other promotions. Now, it's all free at the 11,500 out of 14,000 US locations with Wi-Fi. Add to that the "sort of free" option at Starbucks--a deal that changed for the worse in late December--and you've got nearly 20,000 where you shouldn't have to pay for Internet access.
That tips the balance in the US well in favor of free or free--or at least free plus "inclusively free," where an existing subscription brings with it Wi-Fi hotspot service.
Over at TidBITS, a Mac journal where I'm an editor, I wrote up Find Free and Inexpensive Wi-Fi a few weeks ago to summarize how you can either avoid paying anything, or at least anything much for service.
Myself, I maintain a Boingo Wireless subscription because that's a small price to pay for not having to consider whether or not I can get service without paying an additional fee. McDonald's are oddly scarce in Seattle, with several having been shut down in recent years.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 7:02 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Free, Hot Spot | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Starting in January 2010, US McDonald's restaurants will no longer charge for Wi-Fi: The quick-service chain has service in 11,000 of its 14,000 locations in the US, and previously charge $2.95 for two hours access. The network is operated by AT&T, originally contracted by Wayport which was acquired by the phone giant last year. Most AT&T subscribers get free access at McDonald's, Starbucks, and a few thousand other locations.
This might drive more traffic to McDonald's, which is fighting for various new kinds of customers with its specialty coffee service. Starbucks offers two hours daily of no-cost service as a reward to regular customers--a reward program that changes later this month to require several purchases before then getting the free Wi-Fi deal. (See "Starbucks Makes It Harder to Get Free Wi-Fi," 3 November 2009.)
A McDonald's executive quoted in the Wall Street Journal is clearly making a Starbucks taunt when he says, "free is free." The no-cost service starts in mid-January 2010.
Will this change the perception of the value of Wi-Fi in the US? It's hard to tell. AT&T provides its service to over 27m subscribers now, which is a decent subset of all users, and Starbucks must have millions of regular users. I pay $10/mo to Boingo Wireless for unlimited access at lots of different venues, and $10 has been more than worthwhile to avoid paying $3 or $4 or $6 a pop for access as I need it.
Google certainly gave for-fee Wi-Fi a kick in the keister by sponsoring so much free airport Wi-Fi this holiday season. That may make it hard for airports to go back to charging, but there may be more sponsorship or other models in the future. An increasing number of larger airports have moved to free service (ad supported, often), or are considering such a move. With particular ad models that require a substantial user commitment, such as watching a 30-second commercial, that may pay off airports: get 5 to 10 times the number of users, and ad revenue could cover costs, as well as be a well-received amenity that makes travel better.
Certainly, McDonald's offering free Wi-Fi puts pressure on anyone who doesn't, whether you like the chain's food or not.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 4:07 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Free, Hot Spot | No Comments
Verizon's limited, irritating Wi-Fi access for broadband subscribers now extends to mobile broadband customers, too: Old! Unimproved! But extended! Verizon's Windows-only, laptop/netbook-only free Wi-Fi access, enabled via a subset of Boingo Wireless's network, has been extended to its mobile broadband subscribers. That's laptop adapter/card 3G users--not smartphone users, who still don't get free Wi-Fi.
Not only do you have to use Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or 7, but you have to run Verizon's VZAccess Manager, and manually select a network when one is available. No manual login, no Mac OS X support, no shoes, no service.
I wrote about the limits of Verizon's deal back on 28 July 2009 in "Verizon Limits Free Wi-Fi to Laptops." Verizon is only offering access to "thousands" of hotspots nationwide.
This is in contrast to AT&T's deal, which now encompasses 27m subscribers to DSL, fiber, or business services, as well as all the laptop 3G users, and all iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile smartphones with Wi-Fi built in. Smartphone subscribers can only use the free service from the smartphone, which is an automatic connection on the iPhone and some other models. Non-smartphone subscribers can log in with a user name and password from any device; no special software required. And AT&T gives access to its 20,000-strong hotspot network. (That's less of an issue come January when the 11,000 McDonald's stores in that network go free.)
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 8:57 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Cluelessness, Free, Hot Spot | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Google is underwriting free Wi-Fi and a contest at 47 airports: The deal runs from 10 November to 15 January, and combines fee-free Internet access with matching donations made via Google Checkout (up to $250,000) and a photo contest. Several of the airports listed already offer free Wi-Fi (like Las Vegas and Sacramento), but the other deals apply.
Meanwhile, Niagara Falls's new airport has free Wi-Fi; it opens 11 December. However, there's a hitch: there will be almost no regular flights. Go figure.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 7:28 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Air Travel, Free | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Bing is underwriting free Wi-Fi at some hotspots if you perform a single Bing search: Microsoft's new search engine has gotten positive reviews--I quite like it, though I haven't become a regular user yet--and the company has teamed up with JiWire to push brand awareness through sponsored hotspot access. The program started in September, and incorporates thousands of hotspots--though JiWire is providing details about which one. JiWire says that 30 to 40 percent of visitors take Microsoft up on the offer.
[My usual disclosure: I own a vanishingly small number of shares in JiWire, a privately held company, from my time as an employee and consultant.]
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:13 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Free, Hot Spot | No Comments
The Well-Mannered Traveler, Harriet Baskas, gives an overview and some insight into in-flight Internet: Baskas provides a comprehensive listing of what airlines have free deals, and which flights (if particular ones are involved) are covered. This includes AirTran's Baltimore-to-Boston route, which the airline told Baskas was a competitive advantage. I suspect that Acela is a competitor on that route, among other airlines. (Acela will gain Wi-Fi in about six months.)
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:40 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Air Travel, Free | No Comments
Starbucks is revising its stored-value affinity card programs, making it easier harder to get free Wi-Fi: I've noted before that Starbucks doesn't offer free Wi-Fi in the sense that an indie coffeeshop with an open access point does, nor like airports that provide Wi-Fi at no cost. Rather, Starbucks ties two consecutive hours per day of no-cost Wi-Fi to purchases made using a stored-value card. The firm announced changes last week to its affinity program that require some teasing out of the details; the Web site appears to have been updated today.
[Update: Starbucks hid a detail in a pop-down window that says the same requirement for regular purchases to use Wi-Fi applies. This article has been revised to reflect that.]
Under the current system, Starbucks has two tracks: a free card that stores value for purchases, and a membership card, that can optionally hold a dollar charge. The plain stored-value card exists mostly for convenience and usage tracking by Starbucks, but includes a few extras, one of which is the daily dose of Wi-Fi. To earn that benefit for 30 days, you either make a purchase with the card or add value (min. $5).
Starbucks's soon-to-be-defunct membership program costs $25/yr, includes a 10-percent discount, some free and discounted beverages, and has the precisely identical terms for accessing Wi-Fi.
Starbucks is merging the two programs into one that will have no fees and no discount, but which offers a free drink on your birthday as well as a free drink for every 15 transactions after your first 30 transactions. You can use multiple cards, but they must be registered to an account you set up, and then one or another used for each transaction to accrue and claim benefits.
In this new system, called My Starbucks Rewards, you get the birthday drink just by registering. After five transactions, you're boosted into the Green Level--green being Starbucks' corporate color--and you qualify for the daily Wi-Fi allotment with no further purchases.
Update: I was mistaken. You must be at the Green Level simply in order to qualify to get free Wi-Fi for 30 days following a purchase on the card or adding additional value on the card. This change thus makes it harder for new card users after 26 December--existing customers are grandfathered if they register.
The new card program's FAQ says that you remain active at the green level for two years following your last transaction. So those that want the two-hours-a-day Wi-Fi without purchasing drinks need only prime the pump lightly. (The FAQ is insanely complicated. One would think the marketing department might have drilled this down into several bullet points, and then given the gory details later.)
Green Level patrons also get free brewed coffee refills, extras like syrup and soy milk, and advance marketing materials about new stuff. They also get gentle pats on the head. Good customer, good customer.
After 30 transactions, you get bumped into the Gold Level, at which plateau Howard Schultz personally thinks about you in his office for five seconds on your birthday. Also, you get a personalized gold card that says, "Hey, I spend a lot of money in this place." And that free drink every 15 transactions. And coupons. And a pony*. (*Pony not included.)
This program requires that you register a card, which is optional for stored-value usage, but obviously key to Starbucks understanding everything you do and when. Starbucks is foregoing the revenue from its hundreds of thousands of current paying gold card users in exchange for a vast increase in data collection.
Existing registered regular stored-value card users and Gold Card members are transitioned automatically into Green Level and Gold Level programs, respectively. Register before 26 December if you haven't already to preserve the benefits. This also offers a five-purchase bypass. Buy a Starbucks Card with $5 on it, register it, and you need make no additional purchases to get to the Green Level.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 1:44 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Free, Hot Spot | 1 Comment
From 1 November to 31 December, double your AirTran Wi-Fi fun: The airline is promoting its in-flight Wi-Fi by offering a 2-for-1 purchase: buy a session, and get the next free (must be used by 31 January 2010). AirTran has Wi-Fi on all its aircraft, and operates 700 flights a day.
This spate of free and sponsored deals would seem to indicate that Wi-Fi session use isn't high enough, because you don't give away a service that has a trajectory of adoption that you want. Instead, you use freebies to gain users who then find the service worthwhile enough to pay for routinely in the future.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 2:24 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Air Travel, Free | No Comments
American Airlines passengers from 1 November to 7 November can use a code for free Wi-Fi: The airline has put service into well over 100 planes, with a target of 300 craft in 2010. Lexus is using free Wi-Fi to promote the 2010 Lexus LS: the coupon code is 2010LEXUSLS. American also has a code for first-time users on any flight until the end of the year: AATRYGOGO.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 11:10 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Air Travel, Free | No Comments
Folks involved in running the Milpitas, Calif., network alerted me that I'd left them out of a recent article about free city-wide service: The Milpitas network was built in part by EarthLink, which offered the network at a song to the city government when the dial-up giant exited the municipal wireless business. A non-profit group, Silicon Valley Unwired, is running the network.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 2:56 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Free, Metro-Scale Networks | No Comments
Google's picking up the tab for passengers' Wi-Fi on Virgin America for two months: From 10-Nov-2009 to 15-Jan-2010, Virgin America's Wi-Fi is free, with Google acting as the sponsor. (Of course, I'm flying Virgin on 7-Nov and 9-Nov. It figures.)
Is this a sign that few are paying for in-flight Internet? Hard to say. Virgin America continues to put out the number that 12 to 15 percent of passengers, on average, use the service, but that number first appeared months ago, and we can't see sessions or revenue from that.
Meanwhile, an American Airline exec said in this CNN report, "Well over 40 percent of the people who use American Airlines once, use it again, and that percentage and number is growing." That seems like a good number to AA, but it seems rather low to me (despite growing), unless it implies that a relatively small percentage of regular business travelers over the last several months haven't yet tried Aircell's service at all--which would explain all the first-time free coupons out there.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:39 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Air Travel, Free | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is weird: Verizon replaces T-Mobile as the Wi-Fi provider at Borders stores, with free service launching at 500 stores by mid-October. Barnes & Noble, Borders closest competitor, uses AT&T as its Wi-Fi provider. AT&T charges for access at most of its locations, but Barnes & Noble struck a deal for free Wi-Fi in its stores. (Note: This story originally said B&N's Wi-Fi was a for-fee service, but yours truly occasionally loses track of which chain's Wi-Fi is operated by which provider. Apologies.)
This is a competitive stroke for Borders, of course, which can add an amenity to the checklist of reasons to visit its stores as a B&N alternative. Borders earlier added a store affinity discount and rebate card that carries no cost, unlike BN's $25/yr fee for its more expansive discount membership program. (As someone who also operates a book price shopping service, isbn.nu, I highly recommend Borders free program, as the company regularly sends out huge discounts for online and in-store shopping.)
Verizon has, over the last several years, indicated that Wi-Fi is a kind of nonentity in the mobile connectivity world. While the company on its DSL and cellular sides have, at times, offered Wi-Fi services, it's always been a fourth-class citizen. More recently, Verizon offered free access to a subset of Boingo hotspots to its DSL and fiber (FiOS) customers, but you must run Verizon client software which functions only on laptops and only in certain Windows releases, including XP and Vista in 32-bit flavors. (See "Verizon Limits Free Wi-Fi to Laptops," 2009-07-28.)
Borders must have decided that bodies are better than pennies--and Verizon may have wanted to pick up the opportunity for more brand advertising at a low, low price.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 2:48 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Free, Hot Spot | No Comments
This story ties unemployed folks to higher rates of longer squatting in cafes: The Wall Street Journal reporter writes,
Amid the economic downturn, there are fewer places in New York to plug in computers. As idle workers fill coffee-shop tables -- nursing a single cup, if that, and surfing the Web for hours -- and as shop owners struggle to stay in business, a decade-old love affair between coffee shops and laptop-wielding customers is fading.
Oddly, I believe I wrote this same story with the same concerns at the top of the market in 2005, when cafe owners were, well, already having seen the love affair dim. Taking a hint from a Seattle cafe that turned off Wi-Fi on the weekends, Victrola in Capitol Hill, I wrote in the New York Times four years ago:
...there was also a disadvantage [to offering free Wi-Fi], staff members said: the cafe filled with laptop users each weekend, often one to a table meant for four. Some would sit for six to eight hours purchasing a single drink, or nothing at all.
(I also wrote about Victrola in more detail on this blog.)
This conflict between squatter and cafe owner has been true since Wi-Fi started to become heavily used as it became a standard feature in laptops or available through a cheap add-on card back in 2002 to 2003. Cafes that had attached an AirPort router to a DSL connection suddenly found themselves a bit at sea.
I have heard repeatedly (as the WSJ article notes) that there are folks who are either shameless enough or feel entitled enough that they bring in their own food or coffee, or purchase nothing, and then complain when asked to make a purchase or leave.
There's nothing new here, but it's interesting to see an old trend get hooked to the latest problem that brings people into "third places," away from home and work--especially given that they may have no work.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:08 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Culture, Free, Hot Spot | No Comments | No TrackBacks
The fine print is now available on Verizon's free Wi-Fi deal for its broadband customers: Only laptop Windows XP/Vista (32-bit only) users need apply. Which seems insane to me, but it's also in line with Verizon's remarkable micro-management of its users and usage. The "how to get it" page explaining how to obtain free Wi-Fi notes, "Verizon Wi-Fi is not available for PDAs, phones, desktop PCs or Macs."
I can reason that the PDA and phone issue is that the company hasn't figured out which smartphones and others to add the service to and whether to charge for it. AT&T offers iPhone and some BlackBerry owners free Wi-Fi on its home network of 20,000 hotspots (mostly McDonald's and Starbucks locations); Verizon, however, operates no Wi-Fi network, so additional users mean additional costs. Smartphone users are extremely heavy Wi-Fi data consumers, and if Verizon's deal with Boingo isn't flat-rate per user, then that might explain the hesitation.
The limit to laptops is sort of ridiculous. Desktop PC owners won't easily be able to access laptops, and you have to do be a broadband Verizon customer already, so it's not like you'd be using a Wi-Fi hotspot as your primary Internet connection, would you? There's a story here that's not being told.
The lack of Mac support is simply absurd. Boingo supports Windows and Mac OS X, and Verizon has long had excellent software and tech support for its 3G hardware for Mac OS X.
But wait! There's more. As I noted in a revised version of the story yesterday, IDG News Service noted and a spot check reveals that Verizon isn't offering McDonald's stores, which Boingo resells from AT&T's network. The reason there might be that the McDonald's contract is organized differently. Wayport signed up McD years ago, and structured its arrangement to offer flat-rate resale fees per user in a network, instead of session fees. With that ostensibly still in place even after AT&T's acquisition of Wayport, Verizon might not want to pay the associated fees to offer McDonald's access. This plus Verizon's awful hotspot finder rips some of the heart out of the ubiquity of Boingo's U.S. network.
Finally, Verizon limits this free offer to higher-tiered DSL and fiber (FiOS) subscribers. Existing 3 Mbps DSL or faster and 20 Mbps FiOS or faster customers are the only ones who qualify. Further, only new FiOS customers who buy 25 Mbps or faster connections will qualify.
This is all shooting itself in the foot; penny wise, pound foolish. If you're going to make an extra add-on attractive, you can't dangle a bright shiny ball at all your customers, and then snatch it away from what's likely 25 to 40 percent of them, based on market research.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:46 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Cluelessness, Free | 1 Comment
Barnes & Noble becomes the latest chain to see the benefit of free: Times are tough, and what better way to bring more people in than to offer an amenity that's relatively cheap for you to provide, and which seems like a high value to your potential customers? B&N sees the light, and switches its AT&T Wi-Fi service from fee to free. At last count, B&N says it has 777 stores across all U.S. states.
Wi-Fi was once seen as a revenue opportunity by many kinds of venues, and I have long argued that Wi-Fi would simply become the air we breath. You don't pay for oxygen (except at oxygen bars; do those still exist?), and people just want service. The idea of ubiquitous free or flat-rate offerings is what's driven the growth of 3G, despite low monthly bandwidth caps on laptop-based service.
Part of my notion is that service becomes so cheap to offer and so necessary, that either venues charge nothing, or they primarily have as customers those who have low or corporate-paid flat-rate plans. For a business traveler paying $10 per month to Boingo Wireless, or whose corporate parent is paying tens of dollars per month to iPass, using a fee location is a free transaction.
B&N attracts mostly consumers, and thus free needs to be totally free. Given that B&N makes a good margin on anything it sells in the store, from a latte at an in-store cafe to a magazine or newspaper to a bestselling book, a single purchase of more than about $2 pays for the cost of that customer quite easily.
The mega bookstore chain has had a slightly rocky road with Wi-Fi. In the early days, it wasn't convinced of the utility, and then ultimately signed up with the ill-fated Cometa in 2004. When Cometa imploded shortly thereafter, what was then SBC (and now AT&T) signed up B&N.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:12 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Free, Hot Spot | No Comments
Starbucks has opened a store without its name in the title with free Wi-Fi: In Seattle, the home of that is right and good (and trendy) about hot and cold beverage consumption made by the hands of humans, Starbucks opened 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. The Starbucks name is relatively hidden, apparently in small type here and there. The store doesn't sell frappucinos, it has a manual espresso machine, and it focuses on specialty tastes and custom tweaking of coffee. There's a Clover there, of course. You can read about the store in greater detail via the link above (Seattle Post Intelligencer) or in this story at the Seattle Times.
And it has free Wi-Fi. My colleague Brian Chin tweets that there's an attwifi network name, but there's no password required for access. Because the store apes independent and small-chain coffee shops in the vicinity, Starbucks is echoing the free Wi-Fi in those stores as well.
The store is near Victrola Coffee and Art, a store I wrote about in 2005 for this site and the New York Times when the owners at that time chose to turn off Wi-Fi on the weekends. (The WNN story was the most-commented article I've ever had on the site, except for a thread complaining about Linksys firmware.)
Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 11:06 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Culture, Free, Hot Spot | No Comments