Thank you for the pointed piece and editorial regarding free vs. pay-per-use Wi-Fi in your July/August issue. I couldn’t agree with you more.

I was speaking at the recent Canadian Franchise Association conference regarding this very issue. Retailers can believe what they want but the fact remains that payper- use Wi-Fi is only effective in airports, trains, some hotel rooms and wherever else the business traveller will be forced to wait, needs to be productive and has a big expense account. To think that the average person will pay even $5 to get online at a coffee shop is ridiculous.

That free Wi-Fi drives business is a fact; the degree depends on location and promotion.

Cora’s on Wellington Street in Toronto uses Sesame Networks for free Wi-Fi and promotes it to local businesses so they hold sales meetings over breakfast. It also promotes it through the convention bureau so tourists will come there and not pay exorbitant hotel Internet fees...and it’s working. The CEO of Schlotsky’s Deli, a large U.S. chain, said “Free Wi-Fi results in an additional 15,000 visits per restaurant per year by customers who spend an average of $7 per visit. That means Wi-Fi service brings in more than $100,000 per year per outlet in return for an investment of about $8,000 per restaurant for wireless infrastructure.” But why stop at restaurants?

What about automotive dealerships when your car is being serviced, doctors’ waiting rooms, building lobbies, etc?

 
No one wants to be disconnected anymore, not even when they’re touring the country in an RV. At least, that’s Gail Hendley’s experience.

Hendley operates the Bonanza Gold Motel & RV Park in Dawson City, Yukon. She recently decided wireless Internet access would be convenient for herself, and then discovered that sharing the air made everybody happy. “It’s available in the motel rooms,” Hendley said, “but it’s the RV customers who are into it big time.” Unlike her motel guests, who are travelling light, Hendley said RVers tote all their worldly possessions with them. “Some of them are on the road for months and months, and their computer is never off because they’ve got their GPS system, their Messenger and their e-mail running.”

Recreational and business travellers are no longer leaving Internet access behind when they hit the road, and as their taste for connectivity increases, wireless hotspots are popping up across North America. Truckstops along Hwy. 401 have them, and so do many marinas in British Columbia and Ontario.

From a wooded park in downtown Fredericton to an equestrian arena in Calgary, it seems there’s no place a laptop won’t go. “I’ve seen people sitting on the sidewalk in front of my house occasionally with a laptop,” said Peter Rukavina, a Web consultant in Charlottetown who decided to leave his home-office access point open to the public. Altruistic wireless users like Hendley and Rukavina are welcoming what experts predict will soon be access everywhere.

Internet providers are easing the transition into a wireless world for consumers by joining forces. An inter-carrier agreement between Bell Mobility, Microcell (Fido), Rogers Mobility and TELUS Mobility now provides brand recognition with a common logo, consistent service and streamlined billing.

Customers of any of the providers can link up through one of the hotspots and have the access billed through their carriers. For the providers, the initiative is aimed at preparing a growing number of wireless consumers in both business and leisure settings for a technology that’s poised to spread.

Offices, airports,hotels, restaurants and coffee shops are increasingly reliable places to access wireless, but for the real laptop adventurers out there, 15 uncommon hotspots across the country point to the Wi-Fi frontiers.

15 TO WATCH FOR

1. The wireless connection for Rukavina’s Charlottetown company, Reinvented Inc., is secure behind a firewall, but he added a second one to increase the availability of wireless in his community. “I bought the wireless access point for $69, and at that price it seemed silly not to share,” Rukavina said. The signal radiates out down the street and into the nearby St. Paul’s Anglican Church. “The usefulness of the Wi-Fi for religious purposes remains to be seen.”
2. Putting in a full day’s work on the beach isn’t just for lifeguards anymore. A FatPort hotspot reaches out onto English Bay Beach in Vancouver. FatPort focuses on the mobile professional market, but with hotspots on the beach, productivity could take a dip.
3. Truckers were true mobile professionals before anyone else started packing computers into shoulder bags, but they’re happy to take advantage of wireless innovations. At the Flying J truckstop in Vaudrieul Dorion, Que., long-haul drivers can grab a meal, a shower and a few minutes online. Esso has also recognized the fit and added wireless to its amenities at multiple stations along the 401 through Ontario.
4. Wi-Fi on the road is also available to the RV community, at Hendley’s Bonanza Gold Motel & RV Park and multiple other locations on highways and byways across the country. “I’ve got a guy out in the park right now. He’s a mechanic, and he’s towing his whole shop with him, and he won’t go anywhere there isn’t wireless,” Hendley said.
5. When proprietor Daniel Frankel established The Mill Marine Bistro in downtown Vancouver, he noticed a problem that would be deadly to many restaurant owners: a serious lack of dockside parking. But the restaurant is right on the water, and so Frankel established a “boat-thru.” Boaters can radio in their order, pull up outside the restaurant and have meals delivered to them. Putting in a hotspot for his customers was a natural extension for a man who recognizes that being stuck on the water is no reason to give up the luxuries enjoyed by landlubbers.
6. VIA Rail broke wireless barriers when it partnered with Bell Canada, Intel and PointShot Wireless to offer the first nonstop Internet access on trains in North America. First-class passengers riding the rails between Toronto and Montreal can enjoy free wireless as the Ottawa-based PointShot polishes its wireless, cellular and satellite network technology for use on trains and other moving targets. A similar trial was recently launched by Telus and Spotnik.
7. Wireless has yet to sweep the Maritimes, so the few coffee shops in Halifax that host hotspots are East Coast Wi-Fi trendsetters. Uncommon Grounds, Ristretto and Trident Booksellers & Café provide complimentary access.
8. In contrast, wireless access abounds in Toronto, available everywhere from cafés to record stores to corporate offices. “We have a system in our Toronto head office,” said Chris Langdon, Telus’ director of business and enterprise solutions, “and it’s surprising how much usage is generated by suppliers who are having a meeting with us.” Online conferences and presentations are facilitated by wireless in offices, and the hotspots sometimes spill out into the street. Sidewalk surfers in Toronto can visit the intersection of King and Victoria Streets to take advantage of the generosity of one nearby business.
9. To learn interesting facts about Odell Park in Fredericton, visit with a laptop or other Wi-Fi-enabled device. You’ll discover the park is a full 388 acres larger than Sherwood Forest in England and is home to more than 400 species of trees native to New Brunswick. Lawns shaded by huge maples are a popular spot for student escapes, and learning in the great outdoors just got easier, as the park’s status as a hotspot is part of the Fred-eZone initiative, a business and municipal partnership providing free wireless access that blankets the city’s downtown and public areas.
10. For those who like to do business on the links, golf courses are joining the wireless world. Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont., boasts a Telus hotspot, as do four other clubs in the region. FatPort wireless will soon tee off on its own international golf club and resort initiative.
11. Hotspots are sparse outside major centres, but they will follow the business. The Sawridge Inns in Fort McMurray, Alta., and Great Slave Lake, NWT, serves oil patch workers and offers a Telus hotspot to help engineers on exploratory digs report back to head office.
12. The hotspot at Mac’s Convenience on 4th Avenue SW in Calgary isn’t seeing much action, according to Carl, who’s been working full-time at the store since Wi-Fi access was installed six months ago. “I don’t see people using it at all,” he said. There’s nowhere to sit in the store, and although employees could use the hotspot at work, Carl finds it more comfortable using the wireless network he set up at home. “I can carry my laptop all around, sit down and watch TV, and play on the Internet at the same time. It’s kind of cool.”
13. 100 Fountain Spa in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., doesn’t exactly want to bill itself as a hotspot — but it is. “We don’t want to promote it in the sense that we don’t want to spoil the ambiance,” said Allen Geberg, director of sales and marketing for Vintage Inns, which runs two spas in the region. “But we felt it was an integral part of the level of service today.” Customers are expected to resist the lure of e-mail while in treatment or workout areas, but between treatments, are able to check in with the office or family. And Geberg said the decision to install wireless actually improved the atmosphere: it’s considerably quieter than chatting on a cellphone.
14. When Wireless Calgary built a hotspot at Spruce Meadows last year, it was mainly interested in helping the media cover the equestrian events hosted there. Since then, innovations in tracking technology for performance sports have landed at the show jumping arena. “We have a GPS receiver on the rider’s helmet, and this is transmitting the rider’s position and velocity,” said Richard Belzil, director of Wireless City. Information about the riders’ route and speed will be used in training as well as for television and Internet broadcast. Using the arena’s hotspot, laptop users in the stands at Spruce Meadows will be able to follow the GPS tracking online. “People in the crowd will have a very useful tool at hand to show them some of the subtleties of the rides,” Belzil said.
15. Downtime takes a drive into obscurity when you can check your e-mail while getting your car tuned up. “If a guy comes in and wants an oil change done and it’s going to take 20 minutes, he can work while he’s waiting,” said Randy Hodgins, general manager at the Canadian Tire on Ogilvie Road in Ottawa. The store began a trial run as a hotspot in September, with the help of Sesame Networks.

“You’re going to see Wi-Fi springing up whereverpeople need to wait or conduct business,” said Warren Porter, vice-president of sales at Sesame. “Quite frankly, if you’re willing to spend money on coffee for your customers or clients, you should be providing free Internet access.”