Barnes and Noble, long in cahoots with AT&T for the paid Wi-Fi service in their brick and mortar stores, has gone free. The service is still ATT, but it is free to anyone in the store. I have always had access to their paid WiFi through my ATT account (high-end DSL users have access to all ATT WiFi hotspots), but for some, this hasn’t been an option. I always wondered how long paid WiFi would last; once in place, WiFi services have a very low overhead and low maintenance costs, so to me, the $6.99 for one hour charges were excessive and unnecessary. Not having free WiFi was often the reason I chose one cafe or bookstore over another.
So if you’re counting, some rather big retailers have now gone to free WiFi. Panera Bread (based right here in St. Louis where I live) has always had free WiFi with no conditions. Starbucks went free on their WiFi last year, although it comes with a few conditions. The only remaining big-box bookstore without free WiFi is Borders, who has a contract with TMobile for their WiFi access, at an incredibly high price. Many tiny cafes and independent bookstores have offered free WiFi for years, and most libraries offer WiFi as well, which is, of course, free.
Now it’s time for hotels to step up as well. Every time I travel on business, I get nickel-and-dimed for WiFi access in a hotel room that I paid a pretty good price for to begin with. Yet, if I book myself into the local Best Western instead, I can usually get a hot breakfast for free, plus all the WiFi I can consume in my hotel room. The business hotels only offer free access in the lobbies if at all, and exhorbitantly priced access in the rooms themselves. If the Best Western can get it right, why can’t the Milleniums and the Regencies and the Westins?
I’m all for free at businesses that get my money through their product. It irritates me if they seek to offer a “second” internet product at hyper-inflated prices. Why sell a fairly priced book and then gouge for the internet? Granted, if I owned a book store where people came in, never bought a book, and used me only as a library with free internet – I may become upset. So whenever I visit and establishment where I intend to use their wifi – I return thanks by giving them business. Nothing is really free.
I have often wondered why I got free WiFi with a $30 hotel room but had to pay $12.95 for 24 hours of access with a $300 hotel room.