A lot is being said about so called Free WiFi when really what we’re starting to see is “complimentary” WiFi being offered by AT&T and Starbucks, in exchange for your purchase at Starbucks and your eyeballs on screen to see some Yahoo ads. (See post below)
Here in Paris many of the Cafe’s have taken the Esme Vos model that she suggested San Francisco adopt. That being have WiFi offered by the cafe’s and restaurants. As I sit in Le Bastille, having a late morning coffee and an egg omelette I am enjoying complimentary WiFi from Wistro, a service that supplies broadband WiFi to cafes, brasseries and restaurants.
My speeds are better than I usually see in many a hotel, with 2.5 megs down and over 500k up. What’s more all I needed was a code, which the waiter rattled off so even I, with poor French language skills was able to enter it and log on.
Esme’s suggested model is right…And the more I wander Paris, the more I realize just how silly the idea of MuniWiFi that the cities had bought into really was..With the abandonment of the Earthlink networks and lack of completion, the major cities have made my term for what that concept was, “HOMELESS WIRELESS” a reality, as MuniWiFi is really struggling to find a home.