« Another "Really Big" Week for VoIP | Main | VoIP Case Study @ Standford Business School »

May 27, 2004

Wi-Fi @ Denny's: Only in Silicon Valley

When I arrived in Palo Alto late last night, after looking for a place for some coffee, I couldn't help but smile when I ran across a local Denny's which was advertising that it had “Wireless Internet” access.

When I walked into the Denny’s Dinner and took one of the rate cards, I was equally amazed at what the asking price for Wi-Fi access was. The peak rate is 15 cents a minute for the first 30 minutes and then 50 cents a minute thereafter. At an effective cost of $19.50 per hour for Wi-Fi access, I have to believe that the standard bill for Wi-Fi @ Denny’s is generally much greater than the average individual dining costs.

This made the off-peak rate of 15 cents a minute ( $9/hr) sound cheap.

Only in Silicon Valley…

Posted by jeff on May 27, 2004 09:01 AM | Permalink

Additional resources: #140conf events | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos

Comments

In the UK the cheapest WiFi voucher is £6 for 2 hours.
I see that SIP allows to have multi media comms. so how do i get a webcam or video functionality on a PDS? any ideas. It would be nice to send quality voice and video over WiFI
Paul

Posted by: Paul at May 28, 2004 02:02 AM

what a rip off.. but it is in Silly con vally. LOL

Posted by: imnoob at May 27, 2004 05:32 PM

The Dennys a few blocks from my house here in Vancouver has free WiFi. Still not enough to entice me to go eat there.

Posted by: Boris Mann at May 27, 2004 11:28 AM