Most Of My Canadian Offices Just Added WiFi
July 5, 2012 by Dave Haynes
This has very little to do with digital signage, but will be good news for just about any Canadian working in the sector, and you foreigners who manage to slip across our borders: free WiFi all over the frozen tundra (82 F right now).
Just about any Canadian who has started or run a small business has used Tim Horton’s as an office and meeting room. I don’t know how many meetings I have done at Timmy’s in various cities, but lots.
Starbucks is/was an option, but there are too few tables. On the other hand, it had free WiFi.
So now there is news that the WiFi signs I have seen here and there at Tim’s sites is beyond the trial stage and the coffee chain has a partnership with Bell Canada to offer no-fee web access at 90 percent of its stores. That means maybe 3,000 sites, and in my neck of the woods (world HQ is just up the freeway), anywhere I look.
By September, Tim Hortons says it will have the largest free WiFi network in Canada. McDonald’s has free WiFi in about 1,000 stores up here, but there you get screaming kids.
So for all the small business folks, like me, who actually have to pay attention and control monthly mobile bills, some free WiFi is welcomed and a smart move. If I need to crack the laptop and jump on the web, I’m likely to see a Tim’s faster than a Starbucks.
Tim Hortons, for the unfamiliar, already has a well baked-in digital menu board network and vendor – so don’t put them on the sales target list.
Depends which McDonalds. The refurbished ones with Wi-Fi tend to have more of a Starbucks-style decor scheme and are indeed aimed at winning back older customers.