There's more demand for Wi-Fi than ever—more users, more data. Here's how to keep up with demand. BY PAN DEMETRAKAKES
wireless act High
his Facebook page before he starts the next chapter of the Great American Novel. But technology marches on, in the coff eehouse as
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elsewhere. Now, cafés that off er Wi-Fi are likely to fi nd more users than ever, downloading (and in some cases, uploading) stuff that takes up more bandwidth than ever. A coff eehouse owner who wants to off er Wi-Fi service that's reliable and secure—for both the shop and the patrons—needs to be aware of the latest options. One of the most basic decisions for coff ee shop Wi-Fi, as
he classic image of a Wi-Fi user in a coff eehouse is a guy with a laptop, placidly checking his e-mail and updating
connection the shop now has with internet provider Bright House Networks: "Th is one tends to drop the internet less. When we were running a DSL modem, we were resetting our router quite a bit more and it did tend to slow down a little bit more at peak times, when more people were logging on." Beans and Brews, a chain based in Salt Lake City, has off ered
Wi-Fi in all its outlets (now up to 24) for more than 10 years and has seen its popularity rise sharply, says CEO Jeff Laramie. "It wasn't as popular to jump on the Wi-Fi when it was just laptops because not everyone was carrying around a laptop,"
with any Internet connection, is what kind of connection to get. DSL used to be the norm, but cable is an increasingly available and popular option—and fi ber-optic is coming on strong. Mitchell's Coff ee House in Lakeland, Fla., has been off ering
Wi-Fi for roughly half of its 14 or so years of existence. It started out with DSL but switched to cable a few years ago. "I'm not a really big technical guy,
Harvey. "If it logs on to the Internet, I'm happy." He has noticed that there seem to be fewer problems with the cable
" admits owner Mitchell 10
Laramie says. "But pretty much everyone carries around a phone and a lot of them are smartphones, and so we're fi nding there's a lot more users in those terms."
FREE'S A CROWD Smartphones, of course, usually come with their own
Internet connection as part of the phone service provider's network. But many smartphone users are on data plans that charge extra if they exceed a monthly quota. When they fi nd themselves in a place that off ers a free connection, it's hard to resist, especially if it's faster than the one off ered through the
