McDonalds are going to offer Free WiFi in all 1,200 of its UK outlets. This is an interesting story. Not just because McDonalds now becomes one of the largest if not the largest WiFi provider in the UK but also because it opens up a number of questions on what impact this will have on other sectors within the Internet space.

Will this kick start the SaaS (Software as a Service) model in the UK. I mean if all of those business travellers that McDonalds are trying to get in through the door actually use the service for connecting back to head office to catch up with company news etc.. then more companies will have to start offering access to their systems just to remain competitive.

How will this type of service impact social networking sites like bebo or facebook? When my teenage neice comes home from school she runs to the computer to “log on” to her friends ( the very same friends she has spent all day with in the classroom) and socialise electronically. Now she can sit in McDonalds and talk face to face with some friends and as a group they can interact with other members of their social circle remotely. I’ve still not worked out what they talk about (it seems they have their own language at times :-)) online but they share photo’s and gossip at alarming speed.

Either way its going to be interesting to see how this story plays out.

Regards

Dean

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This entry was posted by Dean on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 10:35 am and is tagged with wifi and is posted in the category Uncategorized. 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.