Friday, April 4, 2003
Ten McDonald's restaurants in Manhattan are offering customers WiFi internet connection in a three-month experiment. If the plan works, hundreds more restaurants will be upgraded with the wireless connection by the end of the year, according to the company.
WiFi, or wireless fidelity, refers to 802.11b, an inexpensive and popular networking standard that uses an unlicensed portion of the radio spectrum.
For the next three months, the 10 New York City McDonald's restaurants are giving away one hour of access to customers who buy a Value Meal. Those who aren''t hungry can pay $3 for the same one-hour access.
Starbucks has been offering WiFi access in hundreds of coffee shops across the country for two years. It charges $30 a month for unlimited access with a one-year commitment or $6 for a one-time session of up to an hour.
While the experiment is officially a pilot project, McDonald's said WiFi access at its restaurants would only continue to grow. The pricing and the partners may change, and the technology will be refined, but there would be no turning back.
By: DocMemory
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