WiFi in BK

We see a lot of news these days about the deployment of WiFi access in public places. Here's an example today about a chain of Burger King stores in Washington State, USA:

DONOBi on the Fast (Food) Track

Personally, Burger King would have to be a lot more comfortable as a restaurant for me to want to spend enough time there to make it worthwhile to haul my laptop out of my car and plunk down at a table for an hour.

But about a week ago, this more welcome news came out:

Panera LLC Selects SAVVIS to Power Nation's Largest Network of Free Wi-Fi Hotspots

Now Panera Bread offers the level of comfort and ambience conducive to some online work. And besides, the Panera hotspots are free, whereas the Burger King hotspots (this particular chain in Washington is owned by Sound City Foods) require a paid subscription.

The proliferation of WiFi hotspots is certainly a welcome trend. As things are, though, the average user faces numerous obstacles to an enjoyable experience -- for example, login and subscription hurdles that result in a less-than-seamless access experience; buggy wireless technologies resulting in frequent disconnects; and frustrating mobile devices with usability problems.

But pretty soon, users will start migrating to usable devices and WiFi services that make access easy. Things should be getting a lot more interesting over the next couple of years.

AB -- 1/27/05