Wi-fi hotspots spring up throughout South Sound

You could hang off the side of a 27-foot-tall rock wall at Edgeworks Climbing in Tacoma and read your e-mail on a Blackberry without charge.

Most people who use the climbing gym’s free wireless Internet service, however, choose to sit in a second-floor lounge, mere feet away from tethered climbers.

Edgeworks’ owner, Tod Bloxham, installed the service himself last fall, paying $80 for a router, then employing unused bandwidth the business had to process credit card purchases. He advertises the free network on the gym’s Web site and on signs throughout the building.

Free wireless access creates an atmosphere where people want to hang out, or where they can get a little work done before a climbing session, he said.

“It’s not a huge number of people (who use it), but it’s just a service that’s easy to offer,” Bloxham said.

With free or low-cost municipal Internet networks months or years from taking hold locally, and few national chains offering free Wi-Fi, independent South Sound businesses are leading the way on free Internet access.

Edgeworks is one of more than 70 businesses and libraries to offer free Wi-Fi in Pierce, southern King and northern Thurston counties, according to a News Tribune search. Tacoma Public Library’s 10 branches have it, as do five of Pierce County’s locations. All 17 county locations will offer no-charge wireless by the end of 2007, said library spokeswoman Mary Getchell.

“The cost of doing that is not much, and the knowledge of doing that has become easy,” said Suresh Kotha, a business management professor at the University of Washington. “The bar has been raised so that a lot of people are offering it because of lot of people are expecting it.”

Most hotspots aren’t free

Although there is a shift toward not charging for wireless, only about 16 percent of the roughly 40,000 hotspots in the U.S. are free, said David Blumenfeld, vice president of marketing for JiWire, a San Francisco-based company that tracks Wi-Fi.

There are about 1,400 hotspots in Washington, placing it sixth among the states, he said.

Independent businesses have an advantage over large chains in that they need to install Wi-Fi at just one or two locations, rather than hundreds or thousands, Kotha said. Still, he’s skeptical that the service gives small businesses a competitive advantage over the big boys – Starbucks and McDonald’s – which charge a fee to access their Wi-Fi network. Prices range from about $30 for a one-year contract at both chains to nearly $50 for a month-to-month agreement at McDonald’s.

“It may not help them get new customers because people are so used to going to places like Starbucks,” Kotha said.

Starbucks, with more 4,800 locations nationwide, believes the increase of free Internet access improves business because “it builds awareness and it helps increase customer adoption of Wi-Fi across the board,” according to a statement provided to The News Tribune.

The company also touts its Wi-Fi service, provided by T-Mobile, as “a fast, guaranteed wireless experience” that “provides a much more rewarding experience” because of its widespread availability, according to the statement.

Paul Sparks of Tacoma isn’t buying it.

“I don’t use them,” Sparks, 36, said of businesses that charge for Wi-Fi. “I think a part of the power of your local culture is that they offer something for free and they’re not trying to make a buck off that.”

Speaking in Tacoma’s Black Water Cafe, which advertises its free wireless access on a sandwich board outside its front door at 747 S. Fawcett Ave., Sparks said he uses wireless access every day in his work for the Northwest Leadership Foundation, a faith-based Tacoma nonprofit organization.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the factor (in choosing a coffee shop), but I’d at least say that I wouldn’t be here” without it, he said.

Bruce Titus Tacoma Nissan Subaru on South Tacoma Way created a free Wi-Fi network for customers about 18 months ago, said Rick Griffith, the dealership’s information services director. The company advertised the service in newspapers. Griffith said a couple of customers each week log on inside the dealership’s building or anywhere on its car lot.

“I don’t think there’s any other place where you can have your car worked on and plan a vacation at the same time,” he said.

Griffith said the dealership set up a double firewall to keep hackers from accessing customers’ financial and personal data.

While Bruce Titus, the Black Water Cafe and Edgeworks Climbing offer free Internet access as an additional service, Wi-Fi is the center of attention at the Java Bean’s downtown and South Tacoma locations, both of which opened this year.

The downtown shop offers laptop computer rentals, and the location near Lincoln High School has five desktop computers for customers to use with the free Internet access, said Rhonda Ender, Java Bean spokeswoman.

“It’s a unique selling point,” she said. “Sure, we could charge for it, but that’s not our goal. We want it to be a plus, not a moneymaker.”

Panera Bread, a national restaurant chain that has locations in Lakewood and Lacey, isn’t interested in Wi-Fi being a moneymaker either, said Mark Crowley, spokesman for the Richmond Heights, Mo.-based company.

Free Internet access is available in more than 800 of Panera Bread’s 900 stories, he said. The company believes in placing a “premium on the environment that we’re providing to our customers,” he said.

And had there been any discussion about charging for access?

“Nope. From the start it’s been a free service we provided,” Crowley said.

Other Wi-Fi models explored

Communities such as Portland and San Francisco are in the final stages of providing a citywide wireless network to its residents, but Tacomans will have to wait.

Paul Ellis, director of metropolitan development for the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, said there’s talk about creating a Wi-Fi network for Police and Fire departments in Tacoma, then allowing residents to piggyback on the unused bandwidth.

“I think if people had a successful model, people would be rushing to do it,” he said. “I think we’re still trying to put together the right mix of features and services and doing it in a way that is seamless.”

Problems such as signal interference, connection speed and network reliability haven’t been solved when dealing with a large-scale wireless network, Ellis said. And people’s expectations about the service, and how much they should pay for it, outstrip what’s possible, he said.

“I think the biggest problem is hype,” he said. “Unfortunately, what they’ve been told now is that you can have unlimited speed anywhere you want for free. And there isn’t any business model for that.”

Ellis sees two other options outside piggybacking on the law enforcement network:

 • The city could create and own a network that is advertiser-supported. A third-party company could do the advertising marketing and sales.

 • A private company could create and own a network that would provide free wireless to everyone. It would make money by selling a more reliable service with a faster connection speed to customers for a fee.

“You’re not giving everything away, and you’re finding a thing that people will pay for,” Ellis said of the third plan.

In the meantime, people looking for free Wi-Fi can turn to their neighborhood coffee shop or climbing gym.

“I think people are offering that because it’s sexy right now, and people like that,” Ellis said. “It’s another thing that will get people in their door.”

See an interactive map that highlights more than 70 businesses and library locations in the South Sound that offer free wireless Internet.

But we want to hear from you, too.

Sign on and leave comments about the pastries, the parking situation or any other details about the free Wi-Fi spots. Upload exterior photographs of any business where one isn’t displayed. And send us information on businesses with free wireless access that aren’t yet on the map.

Using Wi-Fi with a PC or a Windows operating system

1. Check your owner’s manual to see whether your computer has a wireless adapter card. If so, go to Step 2. If not, contact the company that made your computer to learn if it’s possible to buy one.

2. Make sure your adapter and its software drivers are installed. Start your PC and look for a balloon on your task bar called Wireless Network Connection.

3. Right-click on the network connection icon the balloon points to.

4. Choose Available Wireless Networks from the drop-down menu.

5. A list of wireless networks will appear. Ask someone at the business or the library for the name of the free wireless network. Select that network and click Connect.

6. Open a Web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox and enjoy wireless Internet.

Using Wi-Fi with a Macintosh

1. Check your owner’s manual to see if your Mac has a wireless adapter card. If so, go to Step 2. If not, contact Apple to ask if it’s possible to buy one.

2. Start your Mac. Click on the apple icon in the top left corner of your browser and select System Preferences.

3. Click on the Network icon, and choose AirPort from the Show menu. Click the AirPort tab.

4. Ask someone at the business or the library for the name of the free wireless network. Click the icon called Join A Specific Network and select the correct network. Click the Apply Now button.

5. Open a Web browser such as Safari or Mozilla Firefox and enjoy wireless Internet.