Free internet cafe backlash - Berlin

Some central Berlin cafes are closing down their WLAN services as people are taking up tables for too long and sipping a coffee for three hours. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just isolated to Mitte?

Ah, another example of the lack of good manners and flogging the horse until it drops. In the search for the cheapest or better still free, common sense flies out of the window.
robert berridge

Not just happening here. I'm afraid I can't post a link but there's an article in the UK Independent today about this also happenening in the US.

I tend to agree with robert. I'm self-employed myself and quite often use cafe facilities (but just laptop but newspapers, TV etc). I do discipline myself to pay my way in terms of consumption (not to mention that ekeing out a coffee for three hours is pretty grim). My business / project is probably not that viable if I have to rely on other people to provide me with free stuff that actually only costs 20 Eur a month to buy (and which I can also offset against tax, along with the cost of the drinks).

And "do as you are done by" works in business. I don't want the "takers" helping themselves to as much of my business as they want, so i don't do it back!

Why do you expect cafes to provide a free service on their premises without it generating business for them ? They do not have an obligation to provide these services, but do so to encourage people to buy their products - which is completly reasonable. So if people come in to (ab)use the free service, and in doing so clog up the tables without purchasing reasonably - and thus reducing the business potential for the cafe, do you not think it is reasonable for them to remove the free WLAN ?

There is a good solution and a great business idea for anyone out there with a programming head and of course a sales person on the side. Write a program which will do a one hour timeout on a WLAN server. Go to the cafes with a prepared pack including free WLAN sign and one hour small print. After the one hour time out it's 2 € an hour. Sell this package to every single cafe you can find and create a mafia style closed shop. People will start to respect the cafes more and understand through their wallet that flogging anything to death in life has consequences.

Thats a really good idea Hal, Ive also noticed people sitting for hours it seems without buying so much as a single coffee... the owners of these cafes must live too... What you exampled is free market capitalism at its finest... once the grace period is over, (which is a resonable time for normal non abusing people).. you must pay a small fee.. seems fair to me!! if you dont like it or bitch that its free, then leave... im sure most sensible people will understand and pay a bit more.. or go to a freakin library!

I think cafes do use this timeout scheme. I was in a cafe in the West of Ireland last year and overheard a waitress explaining to a customer that after a certain period of time (i think it was 45 minuts) she would be charged one euro or more for every extra half hour.

A couple cafés here in Bonn have free WLAN - if you ask the waitress, you will get a voucher with a code valid for one hour of surfing. Works fine.

I was recently at a Starbucks in USA (only drank a water because their coffee sux). They had the cafe refrigerated to about 60 degrees Fahrenheit in an attempt to deal with the probs you speak of. It seemed to me an uneconomical solution. But it did work.
Take care,
space

well they must do something.. if it works and keeps the people from leeching of the system then ok.. But i still think the 'pay as you go system' after the grace period is the best deal.. because u know telecom will have to bitch about something to do with this eventually.. remember they are a total monopoly.. (same as Nordsee Resturant)stepping on their toes dont fly in their book..

Vicious leechers making it horrible for the genteel occasional surfers among us! My god, who are these cretins?! Why don't the restaurant owners take up arms against them?! Let's organize against the thieves!



or not.

Gratis Internet bei Burger King
In rund 130 konzerneigenen Burger King-Filialen ist es künftig möglich, kostenlos im Internet zu surfen

This company is starting a free service. Check it out, guys.

Wow. You don't even have to buy a Burger King product, you can just go there and use their wi-fi for as long as you like......otherwise, it's not actually "free", is it?

Nothing against BurgerKing - I go there - but it's a more natural home for cheapskates than a lot of the more upmarket places that are pulling out of the market. So perhaps the market is working here. "Free" wi-fi is finding its natural habitat, the natural outlet for its likely user group. Wanna chat with an associate or potential client about a proposal....take them to Burger King, bound to impress!

It'll end up like the 70s when well-off people had phones at home but the poorer ones used ones on offer in public spaces.

What I can't understand is why not a single programmer, engineer, system admin, software company, service sector business, or even router manufacturer has done this. It's so simple and clear that it would just HAVE to work and anyone ought to be able to do it. Hmm... One might almost think it's not as trivial as you're making it out to be but it just has to be, right? So why aren't you cashing in, HAL?

woof.

It already has been done. Google "AAA (authentication, authorization and accounting)"+"session limit". Most small Berlin cafes would probably be using those cheapo Fritzbox style routers you get with residential connections though where that kind of access restriction doesn't exist as standard. There are probably a few software options out there also but might be a hassle for your average busy cafe owner to install, maintain etc.