5,000 UK pubs get free Wi-Fi... and they're not even all in London Punch Taverns, operator of more than 5,000 tenanted and leased pubs in the UK, has signed with The Cloud to put free Wi-Fi in all of them in the hope of promoting a little lunchtime drinking. That's drinking coffee and tea, as well as beer, but the chain reckons sales of everything increase once Wi-Fi is freely available as …
The Cloud is offered for free to Sky subscribers, I think it is if you have their broadband package rather than just TV. I have the app for detecting their spots and the coverage they have in built up areas and town centres is bloody excellent. I'm usually on WiFi in any town I visit, fairly confident that I'm not eating into my Tariff Data.
Ignoring FON spots and the like of zero bandwidth being spewed from unaware Home Hub owners, it's rare to find a genuine working BT Openzone hotspot. Usually only one or two in a town.
Anyway, the problem with "free" pub hotspots is they usually make you spend half an hour trying to register and give away tonnes of your personal details, and only then do you get a tiny fraction of bandwidth allocated to you. I usually give up within a minute and just use 3G if I'm really in a need to surf while boozing.
Openzone is slightly quicker if you happen to have a valid login (I get one via Orange), but still takes a while or you have to use a clunky buggy app that will do it for you or trashes your phone (Orange's app for example).
Is there by any chance a hidden agenda whereby Google will attempt to determine how many pints you have consumed in relation to the amount of time spent connected to the pub Wifi....
I suppose it would be interesting to learn what people surf for after 6 or 7 pints/vodkas .....
the worst I know, has their modem 'down in the office' so you get almost no signal!!! I did bot believe it was 'theirs' at first, so checked with staff...
the next, almost as bad, is signal going up and down so badly, its just not worth it!!!
then there are those using 'web login' that a lot of older phones just cannot understand... and when you do get the prompt, you have to find someone to tell you 'todays password' ... :( :(
BT openzone?? no, not everyone, if you dont have a big wallet! above probs still apply, plus finding the 'right one' amongst the crowd!!
I've had an epiphany. How about we enter false details when signing up to things like this? After all, they only need your real details if they're trying to bill you for something which should not be the case with 'free' wifi.
You can all thank me for being the first person ever to come up with this amazing idea by buying me a pint.
look like commercial family venues and not purveyors of fine real ale. At least the one nearby does, there is a kiddies plaything outside.
I need a real ale with my WiFi and if they do real ale then they just might see some of my custom. If not, a couple of glasses of wine and a plate of chips in the beer garden on a sunny day could make a pleasant change from working at my desk.
It would be nice if it is really free, free as in no registration, no creating an account, no filling in forms that ask personal and irrelevant information. I would expect some advertising to support this which is fair enough. If the advertising is too intrusive then those that have control of their device can just block it.
The Cloud is usually pretty good in Wetherspoons pubs, apart from one place that has put the wifi box in one corner and the comfy chairs in the other so it's too weak to connect any more, and the Fayre-something one near the office.
O2 wifi in McDonalds wants my mobile number, which they're not getting. One day I'll remember to take a throw-away SIM with me to sign up with.
I think it's BT that does Starbucks free wifi - that worked OK the one time I tried it.
... had free wifi long ago.
Part of the Bellhaven chain and all the pubs round here had the same access. Connect to the point, enter the password (on the wall of the pub) and you are in.
Now they have gone to Cloud. I now have to tell them email addresses, mobile number, etc to get on. What a pain. I no longer look at the 'Free WiFi' with as much excitement as I used to.
I've always loved the law in this country and how its applied (sarcasm).
While technically there may be under 18s in the pub, the reality is that the vast majority of patrons will be over 18, so why do they publicise it as "family friendly" (I have no problem with them filtering, just how they express it).
It's like the cigarette machines in the pubs that have signs that say "You must be over 16 to use this machine".
(rant over)
These "family friendly" filters are anything but. They are based on perceived popular prejudice, not objective evidence of harm and be benefit. They encourage attitudes that result in widespread and often serious harm, mainly to children and young people. It is censorship and it should be called censorship. Mary Whitehouse would be proud of them.
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