McDonald's will begin to offer free Wi-Fi at all its UK stores later this year.
Ah, they’re lovin’ it.
McDonald’s has announced that it’s going to offer free Wi-Fi in all 1,200 of its UK outlets by the end of 2007.
So, along with your Quarter Pounder and fries, you can flip open the laptop and surf; in fact, the company claims, you won’t even need to make a purchase (although, of course, they hope you will). It’s part of a strategy by the chain to move McDonald’s into a more upmarket position similar to
Starbucks, which has a Wi-Fi deal with
T-Mobile at its stores.
McDonald’s has been working on its image recently, putting in designer furniture and a more muted color scheme, but this leap seems calculated to draw a more adult, business-oriented crowd, especially as Wi-Fi access generally runs around $10 an hour.
“We hope that this will give greater choice for Wi-Fi hotspot users who have had little choice but to pay by the month or hour to access the internet on the move," Steve Easterbrook, president and chief executive at McDonald's, told
vnunet.com
McDonald’s has around 15,000 Wi-Fi equipped restaurants around the world. Britain currently has about 12,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, so the McDonald’s addition will greatly up the total.
Where the company currently has Wi-Fi, that’s provided by
BT Openzone, but it’s understood that
The Cloud will handle much of this big new roll out.
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John Slanger on May 1st, 2008 at 11:42 AM:
I just wonder how secure this is!