Are WiFi users freeloaders and table-hogs?
Perhaps this topic will not be placed before the Oxford Union, but it is nonetheless a good discussion topic for your local debating society: Last week we reported that more and more coffee shop have concluded that offering free WiFi does bring them additional business; in fact, they see a worrisome trend: WiFi users bring their own sandwiches to the shop, and in addition to not ordering anything, they also occupy tables which otherwise could have been used by customers who would. These coffee shop owners now turn off their WiFi service during peak hours. We also quoted wireless maven Glenn Fleishman who, in an article a year ago, noted that coffee shops in Seattle have began to turn off their WiFi service on Saturdays and Sundays. Techworld's Bryan Betts does not agree, quoting a Free-HotSpot study of Paris cafés. The study found that offering free WiFi can get a café more customers, and that these customers are browsers, not table-hogs. Discussion