News

UK McDonald's to Offer Free Wi-Fi

By the Betanews Staff | Published October 8, 2007, 12:11 PM

McDonald's said over the weekend that it planned to offer free wireless access in its restaurants across the UK. The company already offers Wi-Fi in many of its US locations, however it is only free to those using the Nintendo DS - others are charged a nominal fee. All 1,200 restaurants in the region will offer the service, which would make it the largest provider of wireless access.

When complete, the restaurant's network will account for about 10 percent of all hotspots in Britain. The country currently has about 12,000 hotspots, provided by The Cloud, BT, and T-Mobile, along with other smaller carriers. The average price for an hour of usage is around 5 pounds ($10.18), so a free McDonald's service with such wide reach could have the effect of lowering access prices for other premium services.

Comments

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Icecooldesign
Oct 9, 2007 - 3:56 PM

That is the whole point-people don't spend much time in McDonalds, but it is a reason for people to stay in and want to buy other products or buy a second burger

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SGD
Oct 9, 2007 - 9:35 AM

Great some internet access to go with my chicken McNasties.

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bbfc
Oct 8, 2007 - 12:43 PM edited

A good idea, but I wouldn't take my laptop into a McDonalds. It will either be stolen by the average chav who visits the place at least once a day or get covered in grease and fat from my Big Mac!

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Frostek
Oct 9, 2007 - 12:31 PM

Perhaps McDonalds should have adverts showing their real customer base, instead of those happy, shiny families I'm always seeing.

I wonder if the high point of some chavette's wedding reception would be getting the catering done by McDs! ;-)

Anyway, the wireless isn't a lot of use in a place like that - it's not like anyone spends more than a few minutes in there.

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