Tag Archives: Wi-fi

Opinion

Coffee Shop Wi-Fi – balancing demand

4 Comments

Many small cafes are rethinking free wi-fi in a bid to keep afloat – that is the question asked this week by BBC journalist Dougal Shaw.

Limit Wi-fi access time

Watch his report at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37443649

Many of us take free wi-fi in cafes for granted. But there is a trend for smaller ones to experiment with switching it off, in a bid to beat the laptop table-hoggers.

The report features a 2020Media Wi-Fi customer, Tamp coffee in West London.  Owner Dorian picked 2020Media as his supplier for Wi-Fi for the reason he lists to Doug Shaw – customers spending too long on their laptops, and so losing seating space for new customers wanting to sit and eat their food or enjoy their coffee. He experimented with turning off the service completely, but faced a backlash on social media.

The Wi-Fi service from 2020Media is ideal for cafes with busy periods where they need to turn tables quickly.

Our service allows the cafe to set up times of day when the customer Wi-Fi isn’t available (but keeping any staff or infrastructure service running).

Another option is to use access codes – A code valid for 1 hour is given to the customer with their order, and once the hour is up, the customer would need to return to the counter to get another – and hopefully make another purchase. Our case study at a central london location gives more details on this solution. A less instrusive version of this can be setup with social media check-in or click through pages that pop-up after a preset number of hours or minutes, which act as a subtle reminder to the customer that they’ve been using the service for a fair period of time.

Most customers and cafe shop owners are in agreement – Wi-Fi is a must and with a properly setup service from 2020Media, it can be a benefit to both the customer and the shop that provides it.

Contact us for more details about our service. We can provide a free evaluation unit to all UK businesses.

 

Opinion

Legal Obligations for logging Guest Internet Access

2020Media is a UK provider of Guest Wifi for Cafes, Coffee shops, commuwifi symbolnity spaces, campsites, small businesses and more.

If you provide guest access to the Internet, for example WiFi in your coffee shop, the question of whether you are required to register, log or retain user data (identity or usage) is a complex area, not least because there is conflicting and continuously changing information.

Read More: Legal Obligations for logging Guest Internet Access

Opinion

England tops Hotel Wi-Fi list

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With the UK in 6th place worldwide for best public Wi-Fi, it’s hotel guests fare better, as our hotels take the top 4 spots and 6 out of the top 10 positions in a survey carried out by WiFiRank.com in October.

The survey is generated by users, and does not rely on self-reported figures by hotels

Top 10 rank of worldwide hotel WiFi quality
Top 10 rank of worldwide hotel WiFi quality

The Charlotte Street Hotel in London takes the number 3 spot. Located at 15-17 Charlotte Street, the ranking is 9.5 with a download speed of 87.8 Mbps and an upload speed of 53.1 Mbps.

The Amba Charing Cross Hotel, also in London, takes the second spot, but it’s arguably the actual star of the list. That’s because it actually has two of the best networks in the city, with its ‘BT’ and ‘BTOpenzone’ networks sharing the silver medal. ‘BTOpenzone’ has a 10.0 ranking with 83.4 Mbps downloading and 121.3 Mbps upload speed. The ‘BT’ network breaks the scale with a rank of 10+, with downloads at 142.9 Mbps and uploads at 107.3 Mbps.

Finally (once the drumroll has died down) is the Thistle Piccadilly in London and its network ‘_every Hotel’. Needless to say the ranking here is 10+, with 119.4 Mbps downloads and 136 Mbps uploads. Located on Coventry Street it’s the clear winner, and the hotel of choice for those with work to do.

Need to enable Guest Wi-Fi where you are? Contact 2020Media for our comprehensive solutions including Fibre broadband.

tel: 0370 321 2020
email: wifi@2020media.com
More info: http://www.2020media.com/internet-connectivity/wifi-hotspots

Opinion

Top 20 countries for public Wi-Fi in 2015

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Lithuania is apparently the country providing the best public Wi-Fi services, beating out Singapore and the UK, according to a Rotten WiFi survey published this week.

Estonia took the second place for best public Wi-Fi, with an average download speed of 14.8 Mbps (megabits per second), followed by Singapore in third, at 13.1 Mbps on average. Aside from Singapore, no other Asian country made the list.

The speed and quality of public hotspots were tested in 184 countries; Rotten WiFi used information based on countries’ Wi-Fi networks and people travelling through them.

Source: Top 20 countries for public Wi-Fi in 2015

2020Media is on a mission to make public Wi-Fi easy to use for both small providers, and the public.

Take a look at our Cloud Wi-Fi Hotspot solutions and give us a call on 0370 321 2020 to see how we can help you.