Today you can wander into any large branch of Pret A Manger, pull out your laptop or your iPod Touch and enjoy a free wi-fi connection along with your latte. It really is free, not “buy something and then have free wi-fi” or free for half an hour. You do not even need a password.
While some independent cafés have been offering their customers free wireless internet as an added perk for several years, most of the big retail chains have been slower to catch up. Preferring instead to sign up with expensive internet providers and foist the charge on the consumer, Starbucks and Caffè Nero, for example, have deals with T-Mobile and BT Openzone, respectively, which charge as much as £5 for an hour's surfing.
This model, however, appears to be changing. Pret A Manger is one of a growing number of retailers that has decided it is worth footing the bill themselves, making the vision of widespread free wi-fi — which had been fading in the midst of expensive hotspot tariffs — once again a possibility.
After trialling the service for six months in some of its regional stores, Pret A Manger has struck a five-year deal with The Cloud, the wi-fi company, and will now roll out free wi-fi at about 170 of its 190 outlets across the UK from today.
Pret A Manger follows McDonald's, which teamed up with The Cloud to offer free wi-fi in all its restaurants in October of last year and Coffee Republic, which launched free wi-fi in its outlets in conjunction with Commsport.com in May.
Steve Nicholson, chief executive of The Cloud, says that the company is running many more trials with retailers and he expects more to start offering free services soon.
Pret's service has no restrictions. Simon Hargraves, the chain's food and communications director, says: “You don't need a pin number, you don't need to buy anything and there's no restriction on how long you can be online. We trialled it at a couple of our big regional stores and found people did not take advantage of it — they did not treat it like a library.”
Pret A Manger decided to offer wi-fi after customers wrote in asking for it. The company has not yet carried out research to see if it makes people buy more or increases footfall but decided it was worth it as an added extra.
Mr Hargraves added: “This will not be the saviour of Pret A Manger through the recession, if we have one next year. It is just something nice to have.”
The rapid take-up of 3G mobile broadband and dongles, which plug into the side of a laptop to offer internet over the mobile network wherever you are, is one of the catalysts that has changed the wi-fi business model.
Ian Fogg, principal analyst at Forrester Research, the technology analyst says: “Now you can get cheap deals for mobile broadband it has made it very hard to charge for wi-fi in cafes.” Fernando Elizalde, an analyst at Gartner, added: “Somebody will have to pay for it but it is becoming less likely to be the end user.”
In addition, more people now have laptops and wi-fi technology has spread to mobile phones, MP3 players and games consoles, meaning people increasingly want wi-fi connections wherever they are.
Mr Hargreaves added: “We wondered whether we should charge or not. It seemed a bit mean to charge to be honest. It is a surprisingly cost effective extra service to offer customers. There is an installation fee of about £300 to £400 per store, and then there is a monthly charge of £100 per store. Given we have 1.5 million customers across the UK each week that is good value.”
He hopes the service will attract people to the store outside the morning and lunchtime rush-hour. “wi-fi opens up Pret A Manger as a place to hold meetings outside lunch times. We hope it will encourage people to come in the down times.”
Although Mr Nicholson forecasts “a plethora of companies coming out with free deals” in the near future, like so many other areas of business, the credit crunch has taken its toll and has forced some businesses to reconsider.
He now expects to see a mix of business plans alongside totally free access, such as an offer of free wi-fi only when customers make a purchase and possibly for a limited time. He said: “We have had a number of retailers trialling free wi-fi, though some plans have been hit by the economic climate.”
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
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