Sunday, September 9, 2007

A grande triple latte with free WiFi, please

By Fiona Norton

DALLAS — Great things are afoot in the Uptown area for those of us who can’t leave home without our laptops and who suffer withdrawal symptoms if not in constant connection to the World Wide Web. Until fairly recently, accessing the internet outside the home involved a costly subscription to T Mobile and purchasing expensive coffee at Starbucks. Not anymore.

The West Village alone is now awash with free WiFi. Pacuigo, the ice cream parlour, offers free internet access. You will need to ask the server for a pass code (and presumably buy a gelato). The Village Burger Bar also provides free internet access and no pass key is required. The same goes for Juice Zone. That’s a surprising business move really as you can just sit on a bench outside, no purchase made, plugging into their bandwidth.

In the surrounding area, Café Brazil, with locations on 75 and Cedar Springs, has been offering free internet access for some time. A welcome new addition to this pantheon of WiFi cafes is Panera at Lemmon and Oak Lawn. It has opened up right next to La Madeleine, which does not provide internet access at all. Given that Panera serves similar food, I wonder if there will be a defection of customers.

If you prefer beer with your web browsing, then head to The Gingerman. Both locations (Boll Street in Dallas, Camp Bowie in Fort Worth) offer free WiFi, along with an impressive selection of malt beverages.

I did approach Starbucks for their comments on the growing competition in this market and to ask whether they would be re thinking their partnership with T Mobile. Curiously, they declined to respond to my inquiry! I think they need to take care. With the plethora of free WiFi points springing up all around, soon it will be feasible to sit in Starbucks, ignore T Mobile and plug into another business’ network. If your current café of choice is not offering free internet access, ask them why not. This trend is only set to continue and if they want to stay viable, they need to get on board.

One thing that became very evident as I prowled the Uptown area with my trusty Nokia N800 researching access and signal strength, is that way too many of you are not securing your networks. Take care, because free loaders will steal your bandwidth and if they choose to use it to visit dodgy sites, you will be held accountable.

Now folks, unchain yourselves from your desktops, get out there into the sunshine and enjoy hours of free surfing with your coffee, cake and beer!

This story was submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community.

See more stories in:

• Technology > Computer Industry > Internet
• Food and Drink > Dining / Restaurants

Comments

Rick Yost Verified

Or, as another option, you can come down to Pearl. We've given our patrons the op to sit in a comfortable seat, listen and watch the best entertainment available, have a cold beer, cool cocktail, or glass of fine wine, and at the same time indulge the urge to surf for free. We've offered free popcorn and free wifi for over a year now.
Just sayin'.

2 years, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Scott Doyle Verified

With any luck, Dallas will make friends with WiFi providers like Richardson & MeshLinx.

Oh, also, Pearl is a nice spot - if I lived near downtown I'd definitely drop in every couple of days (I still make it out a couple of times a month).

2 years, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

JAVA4DIVA Anonymous

RE: "...because free loaders will steal your bandwidth and if they choose to use it to visit dodgy sites, you will be held accountable."

O, puh-leez, Fiona! So what's your day job? Enforcer for AT&T? Lynch mob honcho for T-Mobile? :-/

1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Pavel Lishin Verified

That made no sense to me.

1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )