Many businesses are starting to offer free wifi. It’s definitely a lucrative offer but only when the wifi actually works. When it doesn’t work, it leaves a sour taste.The other day I had some work to do late evening and I figured I’ll go to a nearby bookstore for a cup of coffee, a light snack, and some in-public productivity using their wifi.
I stopped over at a nearby Borders Bookstore at Huebner Oaks Shopping Center in San Antonio. I found myself a comfortable chair and prepared myself to get their biggest cup of coffee and some food. However, I was strongly disappointed with their wifi signal. Not only did it take my laptop a minute or so just to get on to their network, their “Terms and Conditions” proxy kept kicking me off. About once every minute or so, I would be redirected to their proxy page to once again click on “I Agree”. When I was connected, the network speed was fairly poor, I couldn’t get anything done.
Not willing to waste any time, I pulled out my iPhone and searched for the nearest Starbucks which was conveniently located in the same shopping center. The number of people using the wifi at Starbucks was about the same as Borders yet I was able to log on and achieved speeds of 1.5mbps without being kicked off.
Verizon vs AT&T
Starbucks Coffee in Huebner Oaks, San Antonio, TX
Here’s the deal, both AT&T and Verizon are battling at the forefronts of offering wifi at public locations. AT&T has a dominant role with wifi at all Starbucks and Verizon just began offering free wifi at Borders Bookstore towards the end of 2009. My experience at Borders was my first with any Verizon service and let me just say, it was a poor first impression. Not only did Borders lose me as a customer that evening, but I’m not so sure about being a Verizon customer in the future.
Offering free wifi is a great way to bring in people. But when that offer becomes more of a hassle, it will frustrate people and they’ll relate that frustration with your place of business. It’s about choosing your partners and offerings wisely.
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