Why The WiFi Is Free At Buck's
If you live in Silicon Valley, you know about Buck's, the restaurant known more for the deals that get done there every morning than the food that is served. Jamis MacNiven, who runs Buck's, has a great article over at Always-On explaining why they give free WiFi away at the restaurant. To him, it's like having salt-and-pepper on the table. It's just something that customers expect, and, as he says: "the last 100 feet is costing me nothing because I need the connection anyway, so you are welcome to it." He also talks about the debacle that was a certain Silicon Valley startup (which, by the way, is still in existence with a very different business model) that, five years ago, installed the first WiFi access point at Buck's for "tens of thousands of dollars" - whereas today's system involves a cheap DSL line and about $600 worth of hardware.
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