Tim Hortons now serving free Wi-Fi!

[dragon_drift]

That would be awesome, but people will just abuse it at my local timmies. People pay for small coffee. Sit for several hours looking at other people.

[stealth]

Why do the telcos scream and throw a fit when Teksavvy resells their bandwidth, but Timmies and Starbucks can do it with impunity?

opportunity cost....they see sales by teksavvy as sales they could have had....but occasional restaurant surfers? meh, not as likely-yet. and its a form of advertising/test driving.

[Franchise10]

Either way, a lot of the older locations have not been retrofitted with electrical outlets.. Either a smart move from timmies to encourage more traffic and force people to leave after their batteries die.

[saint2e]

No, and Reselling != Free.

What's your point? Bell and Rogers get paid for their bandwidth either way. Nothing is free here.

If you pay Bell for UFC, can you invite a bunch of friends over to your mansion and make money off admission? Not legally, because any bar owner will tell you, that requires a different license and a buttload more money. It follows the same principle as free wi-fi. I didn't realize that when you purchased bandwidth from Bell and Rogers that it was yours to resell at a profit. I would think you'd have to pay a premium like other resellers.

My point is, free wi-fi seems intuitive here. To a company like Starbucks or Timmies, you're talking maybe $200 .mo for a business account and it provides such a value-add and it's such a hassle to bill for it, that it's not worth it to charge people.

I might ask what your point was, then. Teksavvy resells Rogers/Bell bandwidth. Tim Hortons provides internet access to customers at no charge. I don't see the comparison here.

Now, if you had opened with the bolded statement, then it would've made more sense. I'm not sure exactly how bars get a license for UFC/other PPV's, but I'm told its through the roof, so not a direct comparison, but still the TV/Internet providers get

Thing is, Bell/Rogers pay per usage to a certain degree. Tim Hortons pays Bell/Rogers for X amount of bandwidth per month. If they go over that, the more users use Tim Hortons' free wi-fi, the more Tim Hortons pays Rogers/Bell. Whereas, in the PPV sense, if you were doing it illegally you pay your $50 (or however much it is), and there's no way to track how many screens there are playing that, or how many eyes on are said screens.

I still don't think there's a direct comparison in either case.

[djemzine]

I don't get the point of Wi-Fi on-the-go or why people sit in a crowded & noisy just to get free Wi-Fi.

Majority have Smart Phones and/or Data.

That is true but many don't have 6GB of data. The ones who can't afford data plans probably have 500MB to 1GB of data. Plus if you bring your tablet or laptop with you on your commute, tethering from your phone eats up battery as it is. So this is another alternate way.

[lildevilx]

I don't get the point of Wi-Fi on-the-go or why people sit in a crowded & noisy just to get free Wi-Fi.

Majority have Smart Phones and/or Data.

while majority of the kids don't and don't want to go home

maybe their house doesn't have A/C and they want to avoid going home cause of the heat

[wilsonlam97]

while majority of the kids don't and don't want to go home

maybe their house doesn't have A/C and they want to avoid going home cause of the heat

Lol that sucks for them then. I have 3G data and a/c. Life is good lol

[Drew87]

A lot of people just like to be out and about - instead of grabbing a coffee and leaving - they can grab a seat and go on their laptop and do homework/real work related to their job, and or just surf the net etc - A big laptop screen doesn't compare to a cell phone...

A lot of people don't mind the noise either - it doesn't distract them, and instead of being cooped up in their home office or bedroom they now do that out of the house - they don't have to rush home.....

[sylpherware]

starbucks attracts mac lovers...timies will attract PC lovers

Timmies will attract BB lovers
Gives another meaning to "Roll up the RIM to WIN!"

[flashy_mcflash]

Timmies will attract BB lovers
Gives another meaning to "Roll up the RIM to WIN!"

Except, unlike RIM, Timmies will probably still be in business in 2 years.

[sylpherware]

except, unlike rim, timmies will probably still be in business in 2 years.

ba-da-bum ching!

[MissMalfoy]

A lot of people just like to be out and about - instead of grabbing a coffee and leaving - they can grab a seat and go on their laptop and do homework/real work related to their job, and or just surf the net etc - A big laptop screen doesn't compare to a cell phone...

A lot of people don't mind the noise either - it doesn't distract them, and instead of being cooped up in their home office or bedroom they now do that out of the house - they don't have to rush home.....

I find being anywhere other than my house helps me to actually do work. When I have to write a big essay, I take my laptop somewhere in public... it gives me the feeling that people will judge me if I'm not doing work (even though I know they won't care either way, but it's good motivation). There is a 24 hour Timmies near my house so if I'm up late, it's a good spot to go to get work done, especially with free wifi.

I can see it being a problem as well though because so many people hang out in Timmies for far too long as it is and are usually very crowded.

[cardle]

They should have a time limit on it. After a certain amount of time it stops working.

It would be nice though if all Tim Horton's had somewhere to plug in your device.

[sandikosh]

Starbucks, Mac Donalds and now Tims. Just have to wait for the malls to offer it and telcos will have to make data plans more affordable.

[iridium001]

They should have a time limit on it. After a certain amount of time it stops working.

It would be nice though if all Tim Horton's had somewhere to plug in your device.

Actually, over the long weekend I found out that it's a 20 minutes limit with slower speed - UNLESS you sign up an account with TH, to receive newsletters and emails from them. You can then use this same account to log into any TH Wifi spot all over North America for an unlimited amount of time. Your speed is also faster.

This was at a Timmies in Barrie on the way to cottage country.