Panera Bread said it is seeing 50 percent more traffic on its free Wi-Fi networks in Florida since the hurricane: Much of that usage is from people trying to conduct regular business in the wake of the storm. T-Mobile offered a few days of free Wi-Fi in its outlets.
It appears that the author of this story may have hoped to determine whether the free outlets had more traffic than locations that are charging for access but it seems that there wasn't enough conclusive evidence to draw any definitive conclusions. Anecdotally, it sounds like the venues offering free access were packed, but T-Mobile couldn't offer any data on usage increases at its locations. It would of course be interesting to know how much food people bought in the restaurants offering free Wi-Fi to determine if the service actually paid off.
Regardless of the business aspect of the free Wi-Fi, the technology has been extremely useful in allowing the many people who are without access to get online and communicate.