Free Wi-Fi News

2008-02-21T10:41:00.000-08:00

Starbucks Free Wi-Fi, - not really

Attention! - Another "clarification" - the latest being that it is two "continuous" hours, not two hours total per day, so if you sign off after 15 minutes, that's it, unless you have multiple accounts and go to different locations.

Starbucks has received tons of Free publicity over their "Free Wi-Fi" announcement. Too bad it's not as simple as it sounds. You have to "pay" a nominal amount for "limited" "Free" access, but of course if that's too frustrating, you can always choose to "pay" more for "unlimited" access.

Why didn't they just go all the way - Free Wi-Fi, For Everyone, All the Time. I think that's what their managers wanted all along.

A lot has been said about Starbucks getting more customer friendly and on the surface it sounds like they want Wi-Fi users to think they are, but in reality I don't think that's the case.

2008-02-12T17:20:00.000-08:00

Further update on Starbucks Free Wi-Fi

Again, from Glenn Fleishman at Wi-Fi Networking News

"Once you have the card, free Wi-Fi service is activated by a single purchase of any amount on the card each month."

2008-02-11T16:40:00.000-08:00

Starbucks Free Wi-Fi update.

From Glenn Fleishman of Wi-Fi Networking News

"No purchase is needed: you just need an active card, I confirmed with the company. Walk in, buy a $5 value card, activate it, and you�re on for two hours a day from then forward."

It's about time

2008-02-11T10:29:00.000-08:00

Free Wi-Fi at Starbucks - sort of - but definitely better than what it was.

Starbucks announced it is ending it's association with T-mobile and going with AT&T. The biggest change - Starbucks said Monday it will give customers that use its Starbucks purchase card two hours of free wireless access per day. After that, it's $3.99 for two hour increments. There are $19.99 monthly plans available too and those plans include access to AT&T's 70,000 hotspot network.

Sounds like you have to make a purchase using the card to get the Free Wi-Fi.

Stories I read were unclear about access for Starbucks customers who don't use a purchase card.

Rollout starts this Spring in the 7000 company owned stores and should be completed by year's end.

AT&T also is giving Starbucks' more than 100,000 U.S. employees free wireless accounts.

Is it really Free Wi-Fi?

2007-12-03T05:33:00.000-08:00

Recently I added the JD Wetherspoon pubs across the UK as locations for Free Wi-Fi to the Wi-Fi-Freespot Directory. They have over 600 locations that offer 30 minutes of "Free" access with a drink or food order. When you order ask for a voucher and you'll get the access code. Subsequent 30 minute blocks of free access can be had with more drink or food orders.

Some might argue that this is not true Free Wi-Fi. The actual access time is Free but you have to pay to get it. In most locations, other than Libraries, a purchase might be made voluntarily, either because you were intending to make a purchase anyway or that you felt it would be nice to make a purchase as a means of saying thank you for the Free Wi-Fi.

Requiring a purchase before being granted access is another kettle of fish, as they say. The Wetherspoon pubs are not the only locations doing things this way, but luckily they are in the minority. I guess it is a way to pay for the amenity of Free Wi-Fi but I question whether it is the best way. Granted, the pubs are in business to sell drinks and food and I guess they feel they are either using Free Wi-Fi as a lure for more business or as a reward for purchases, but there are other ways to pay for infrastructure costs. Jiwire and others offer ad supported platforms that should be considered for those looking to pay for their network expenditures, rather than requiring a direct payment from customers.

Anyway, I'll keep the Wetherspoon listing in the Directory. It may end up being the only Free Wi-Fi available in some areas, and that's better than none.

Panera Bread - limited access

2007-11-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

I recently received an e-mail alerting me to a clarification in Panera Bread's "unlimited" access. It seems that some Free Wi-Fi single users in some locations have tied up a table for four for long periods of time. Hence, Panera Bread has decided to limit access to 30 minutes at the "peak" times around 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM. I'm not sure if this an across the board corporate policy or if it is left up to the discretion of individual franchise owners.

Mac or PC, Paid or Free Wi-Fi?

2007-07-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

Mac or PC, Paid or Free Wi-Fi?

There's a post on tuaw.com that asks "Do more Mac users hang out at coffee houses?". The poster says it's about 50/50 where he hangs out. Most of the comments say it's even higher where they hang out. Interestingly though, about 90% of them seem to hang out at Free Wi-Fi locations.

Read the post here.

The Summer of Free Wi-Fi

2007-05-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

The Summer of Free Wi-Fi

Probably not as culturally significant as 1967's Summer of Love, but if you're headed to San Francisco this Summer, or just about any place in the USA for that matter, you're sure to find lots of locations with Free Wi-Fi along the way.

In the last year over 4000 new locations have been added to the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory at http://www.wififreespot.com and new addition requests continue to come in daily.

So, it's not too big a stretch to say that Free Wi-Fi is just about everywhere in the USA these days. Big cities, small towns and places in between, cafes, coffee shops, libraries, RV Parks and campgrounds, highway rest areas, town squares, city parks, hotels and motels, laundromats, car repair centers, fast food and other restaurants, ice cream parlors and many more.

If you're headed to Europe or other parts of the World this Summer you'll find more Free Wi-Fi locations as well, especially in the big cities.

What are you waiting for? Pack up the laptop and hit the road.

NY State Thruway Travel Plazas have Free Wi-Fi

2007-03-01T14:43:00.000-08:00

All 27 Travel Plazas now have Free Wi-Fi.

You'll find a link to the location list on the New York page in the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory.

http://www.wififreespot.com

Free Wi-Fi at Airports - Check the connection!

2007-01-21T07:11:00.000-08:00

A recent article in Computerworld highlights a problem with connecting to ad-hoc networks calling themselves Free Wi-Fi, particularly at Airports. These ad-hoc connections are actually connecting to a nearby computer, rather than an access point's infrastructure network of any "official" Free Wi-Fi provider in the airport.

Connecting via another computer could allow that computer to access your files and do other nefarious activities unless you have the proper security settings activated on your Windows XP or Vista computer.

Read the article here.

Free Wi-Fi Park and Surf Zones

2007-01-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

Free Wi-Fi Park and Surf Zones

Happy New Year.

As a follow-up to the previous post about Park and Surf Zones where road warriors can connect from their cars, a recent submission to the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory is perfect. In Fairfax, Iowa you can connect to Free Wi-Fi from your car at the Fairfax State Savings Bank ATM Kiosk on Highway 151. There are lots of banks with stand-alone ATMs in the parking lots of malls and other places accessible to cars. Imagine if they offered the service of Free Wi-Fi in addition to the standard banking services.

I'm also noticing that more Burger King and Wendy's locations are offering Free Wi-Fi that I imagine is accessible from the parking lot. McDonald's still offers fee based access in most locations but some individual franchise owners do offer Free Wi-Fi. A restaurant management company in CT recently submitted their 4 McDonald's locations with Free Wi-Fi.

2006-12-29T07:06:00.000-08:00

Park and Surf Free Wi-Fi?

Techdirt Wireless led me to a story about Wi-Fi "leeches" ( not a very flattering word ). It seems that some proprietors of businesses that offer Free Wi-Fi don't like it when people stay outside and connect from cars without making a purchase. It's usually travelling business people making a quick check of e-mail. The article suggests that some locations, especially motels, should welcome the chance to use Free Wi-Fi access as a way to encourage brand loyalty. The article ends with an interesting idea:
"Proprietors can choose to become frustrated chasing road weary traveling Wi-Fi leeches from their properties or view it as a marketing opportunity. Best Western does not appear to have advertised or publicized their widespread convenient and free Internet access. This gives a market savvy competitor a chance to capture some publicity if one of these chains was to create a branded drive-in Wi-Fi zone catered to these new aged road warriors. Install it in part of the existing parking lot, perhaps marking and marketing this special space. Welcome users who may become interested in spending a night there. Turn the leeching relationship into a symbiotic one."

Park and Surf Zones sounds good to me.

Read the full article.

2006-12-16T17:22:00.000-08:00

Free Wi-Fi grows and grows

First, my apologies for the lack of posts, no excuses.

My observations, my readings and the number of new Free Wi-Fi locations I add every week point to the continued growth of Free Wi-Fi in 2006. I have thousands of listings in the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory and have been consistently adding 50-100 new locations every week, thanks to the e-mails I get from Free Wi-Fi users around the World.

I've been traveling quite a bit this year and every motel/hotel choice I made was based on the availability of Free Wi-Fi. Luckily, there were usually many to choose from on the road from California to Maine and Massachusetts to Louisiana. Just about all of the national chains of motels offer free Wi-Fi but many of the independently owned ones do too. So, not only can you look for the best price for a night's sleep you can probably get Free Wi-Fi too.

When price became the determining factor and there was no Free Wi-Fi available, coffeeshops and libraries (thank you Maine libraries) were where I found Free Wi-Fi. There were very few travel days without a Free Wi-Fi connection.

Not only do I want to say thanks to all the e-mailers for telling me about new locations they've found but I want to give the biggest thanks to all the coffeeshop/cafe/restaurant and other small business owners who give their regular customers and us walk-ins Free Wi-Fi. It might be "good business" but it's also just a nice thing to do. And also a thank you to Librarians and their Library boards/committees for supporting their communities with Free Wi-Fi.

Predictions for Free Wi-Fi in 2007?

More locations and happy users.

2006-04-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

Motel Wi-Fi for travelers

On a recent drive from CA to New Orleans on I-10 I saw many billboards advertising Free High Speed Internet at motels/inns/suites. Free Wi-Fi seems to have become an important amenity to promote to travelers. Once you pull off the highway you'll also find that many older, independently owned motels also offer Free Wi-Fi, not just the national chains. Perfect for the "budget" traveler - a bed, a shower and Free Wi-Fi.

2006-03-24T16:11:00.000-08:00

$250 fine for accessing open network

Techdirt Wireless had a story today about someone in Illinois being fined for accessing the open network of a non-profit agency from his car.

".....the first person in Winnebago County to be charged with remotely accessing another computer system without the owner�s approval. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to the charge and was fined $250 and sentenced to one year of court supervision."

Read the full story
http://rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060323/NEWS0107/103230036/1011

Read the original post at Techdirt Wireless
http://news.techdirt.com/news/wireless/article/6557

2006-03-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

Wal-Mart and Free Wi-Fi

Wal-Mart just opened a new Supercenter in Plano, Texas and it has Wi-Fi in the Coffee Shop.

Here's more info - www.walmartfacts.com/newsdesk/article.aspx?id=1749

The story doesn't say it's Free but I did get an e-mail from a customer in Plano saying it is Free. He said the store also has a public-access Windows system for those without their own laptops.

2006-03-05T11:01:00.000-08:00

More Free Wi-Fi locations

As more and more people hear about the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory I get more e-mails from people telling me about new locations to add at http://www.wififreespot.com

Since early January I've added around 500 new locations.

California continues to be the State with the most listings but that's not surprising, it's a big State. Delaware and Rhode Island have the fewest but that's because they're the smallest States.

There's no way to know of every location that offers Free Wi-Fi but thanks to the many e-mails I get I update the site daily with new locations.

I continue to hear about USA locations primarily but I've recently added locations in Canada, Sri Lanka, Australia, Vietnam, and Puerto Rico. Outside of the usual categories of coffee shops and cafes, libraries continue to be the fastest growing segment. In addition, more RV Parks are adding Free Wi-Fi to their list of amenities and many vacation rental condo and home owners are now offering Free Wi-Fi to renters. In addition to the general State and Country pages, the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory has specialty pages that list RV Parks, Vacation Rental Properties, Hotels and Airports with Free Wi-Fi. Whether you're looking for Free Wi-Fi around the corner or across the World be sure to check out http://www.wififreespot.com

2006-01-13T12:09:00.000-08:00

Running a business from a Free Wi-Fi location

Here's a great story about Delicious Monster software using a Zoka Coffee location in Seattle as their office.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/255532_macdelicious13.html

2006-01-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

2005 Free Wi-Fi Review

The number of individual Free W-Fi locations added to the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory grew at a steady pace that averaged about 300 per month in 2005. From small rural libraries to large county library systems, from local restaurants and cafes to national chain/franchised restaurants and cafes, from small hotels, motels and B&Bs to large national and international hospitality chains, from regional airports to some of the largest and busiest airports in the World, from rural and metropolitan USA to Estonia, France, Argentina, Australia and beyond the growth of Free Wi-Fi availability in 2005 was quite pervasive and indications for 2006 look just as positive.

Whether it was a library that offered free Wi-Fi as a service to their community, or a coffee shop that offered free Wi-Fi as a perk for their existing customers or a way to draw in new customers and sell more coffee, or a Hotel that offered Free Wi-Fi as an amenity to help fill more rooms there were a variety of reasons for why library trustees, business owners and corporate marketing execs thought it made sense to offer Free Wi-Fi.

In 2005 a lot of press regarding Free Wi-Fi access was focused on municipalities like Philadelphia and San Francisco that asked for bids from private companies to install and provide city wide Free access (when the smoke clears the eventual coverage will probably not be strictly 802.11 Wi-Fi based as more frequency spectrum specifications are approved and hardware released).

One interesting delevelopment regarding the term Wi-Fi in 2005 was the agreement that the term really doesn't mean anything, much less "short for wireless fidelity" as a lot of us have been saying.

In summation, 2005 was a great year for the widespread availability of Free Wi-Fi for local residents and travelers alike. In 2006 I expect the growth to continue and especially in the USA very few people will be far away from a Free Wi-Fi location of some type. In the rest of the World growth will also continue but it will still take awhile for free access to be available outside the major metropolitan areas.

Once again I'd like to thank all the people who took the time to send in e-mails with new locations to be added to the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory. Keep them coming.

2005-12-12T11:38:00.000-08:00

USA Today article on Free Wi-Fi

Last week's Fri-Sun edition of USA Today had an article about Free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory was prominently mentioned as a source to find Free Wi-Fi locations. As a result, I've just finished adding about 200 new locations to the Directory thanks to people who took the time to e-mail in new locations. Library systems continue to be a big part of the growth of Free Wi-Fi availability but the new additions include cafes, laundramats, hotels, inns and B&Bs, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, truck stops, convenience stores, visitor centers, and other locations open to the public.

Although there are other web sites that list Free Wi-Fi locations the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory has been around the longest and I'm pretty sure it's got the largest number of Free Wi-Fi locations - well over 10,000.

Thank you USA Today, e-mailers and Directory users.

Happy Holidays.

2005-11-29T10:48:00.000-08:00

Free Wi-Fi in New Orleans

New Orleans has started the nation's first free wireless Internet network owned and run by a major city by providing free Wi-Fi in the central Business District and in the French Quarter. More areas will be added over the next year.

2005-11-28T13:19:00.000-08:00

Free Wi-Fi at Orlando International Airport

Just in time for the Winter influx of snowbirds and visitors to the Magic Kingdom and other vacation spots in the area the Orlando Airport announced that Free Wi-Fi is now available in the whole airport.

2005-11-21T11:56:00.000-08:00

Thanks for Free Wi-Fi

Thanksgiving is this week in the USA and all the Holiday travelers will be giving thanks for the ever expanding availability of Free Wi-Fi. OK, Free Wi-Fi is probably not the first thing that comes to people's minds when thinking about things to be thankful for but it might make the Top 10 for some people.

Traffic on the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory web site always increases before a Holiday. Lots of folks need to find a place to get online when they're visiting friends and family.

I know I'm thankful for all the folks who send me e-mails telling me about new locations to add to the Directory. I consistently add at least 50 new locations every week.

Here in the USA, library systems, both big and small, continue to add Free Wi-Fi to the list of valuable services they provide to their communities and visitors. Beauregard Parish, Louisiana, Montgomery County, Maryland and the Sno-Isle Community Libraries of Island and Snohomish Counties, Washington are recent additions.

I've just heard that many Staples stores in Illinois are offering Free Wi-Fi on a test basis. Check out the Illinois page for locations.

If you're planning a Winter vacation check out the Vacation Rentals with Free Wi-Fi page. Just like Hotels and Motels are adding Free Wi-Fi as an amenity many condo and home owners are offering it too.

2005-10-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

Free Wi-Fi in the USA

The City of San Francisco has received a lot of attention recently for it's plans to provide city wide Wi-Fi coverage. Their RFP gathered 26 proposals and Google's proposal for free Wi-Fi has been the lead story in many publications.

Whether or not they are the chosen entity the attention their proposal has focused on location specific advertising is the real story. Imagine sitting in a coffee shop and seeing an ad for a sale on CDs or shoes or a 20% off coupon at a restaurant nearby, with directions to get there. You wouldn't even need to be in a coffee shop, you could be at home or work.

Not only could this work in San Francisco, it could work anywhere. Granted, having Google be the provider makes it a lot easier but any tech/marketing savvy entrepreneur could figure out how to make it work for them. The difference being that any location in San Francisco will be supporting Google and offsetting their costs whereas any independent location elsewhere would reap the benefit themselves.

Anything that supports the spread of and existence of Free Wi-Fi is good in my mind.

The Wi-Fi FreeSpot Directory continues to add 50-75 new locations every week. Most of these additions are in the USA while Europe has had a slower growth. I recently heard from someone in South Africa who is hoping to implement advertising supported Free Wi-Fi there. There are very few Free Wi-Fi locations anywhere on the African continent right now, hopefully that will change.

2005-09-12T13:24:00.000-07:00

More Free Wi-Fi in Europe

Radisson SAS Hotels just announced that most of their locations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa now have Free Wi-Fi for guests. See http://www.freebroadband.radissonsas.com/ for more info.

Bagels and Beans locations in The Netherlands will have Free Wi-Fi by October 1. See http://www.bagelsbeans.nl/winkels.shtml for locations.

For five, 3-4 star hotels in Prague with Free Wi-Fi see http://www.charming-prague-hotels.com