WiFi Wireless and Clueless

I have a WeRoam card that gives me Internet access from anywhere in The Philippines where my Smart cell phone works, as the WeRoam card works off the Smart cell phone network, but it’s really not much better than dial-up access. So, every now and then I get the urge for broadband. I decided today, since I have a lot of pics to post on my blogs, that I should go to one of the local WiFi spots and spend a few hours blogging. Since we needed to book a ferry to Iloilo, on one of the Trans Asia Shipping ferry runs, and they had a ticketing office at SM mall in Cebu, and since there was a Starbucks and a Bo’s Cafe Club at SM, it seemed like a good place to get my broadband dose for the day.

However, Bo’s Cafe wanted P200 (~$4) just to plug my laptop into their electric. I went to several other restaurants nearby in the mall and they all wanted the same. One place told me P200 per hour. What idiots! I was ready to spend about 6 hours in whatever place would sit me, buy the best of meals for Marissa and myself, plus continuous refreshments. I would probably have dropped more than P1000 (~$20) on consumables, but because they wanted P200 just to plug in my laptop, I skipped out and returned to my hotel to use the free electric there and my WeRoam connection.

Before I left America, one of the last restaurants I ate in had flat screen TV’s at every booth along with GFI electrical outlets just above table level.

I may not have the best of business sense, but it seems to me that if a WiFi Hotspot were to open here in The Philippines, that offered free electricity to laptop users, they’d be crowded. The people with the laptops are the poeple with money. Why not cater to them, rather than ostrasize them with exhorbatant fees?

This entry was posted on Monday, September 11th, 2006 at 05:11 and is filed under Computers, Philippines Expat Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.