I wonder why this seems so intractable in some countries. In others, such as Indonesia or Vietnam or Taiwan, WiFi really is free in most establishments and nobody seems to have a problem with customers abusing it. Even a $10 hotel has WiFi. Versus say London where a $300 hotel charges $25 for WiFi. In many places nobody would ever expect to pay one cent for WiFi in a place where they are already a paying customer unless it's an Internet cafe.

"Versus say London where a $300 hotel charges $25 for WiFi."

It's almost an inverse relationship, in my experience. The economy to medium-priced "business travel" hotels (the sort found near most U.S. airports) usually have free wifi, while the fancy "luxury" hotels often charge for it.

Because it's usually people that can afford it, or a business trip, where the company will pay for it.

My company will pay for it, but it's a hassle to pay for it, submit the receipt, etc.

I simply choose better hotels.

> Do you think hotels and restaurants can deliver reliable internet without charging for it?

Absolutely. 100% of the hotels that I've stayed at in the last five years have had free wifi. Almost half of those have still had captive portals.

Hell, my gym provides free wifi. The captive portal is literally just a button that says "Continue to the Internet" and redirects you to their Facebook page (not even a terms of use).

Every Starbucks I've been in recently has free wifi. Every library I've visited has had captive portal-free wifi.

I don't understand what sort of "scaling" you're referring to.

> Do you think hotels and restaurants can deliver reliable internet without charging for it?

Yes. Because most already do.

> Do you think hotels and restaurants can deliver reliable [[tap water]] without charging for it?

> Is it reasonable to assume that companies that don't charge for [[tap water]] can afford the staff to make sure that users don't abuse it?

Sorry to post the snarky response, but with internet access, as with all shared goods like access to water or noise in a semi-shared space such as a hotel, yes, I do expect they can handle it and not have it be a big deal.

I was thinking the same thing, with [[lights]].

More like mustard and ketchup and napkins, along with a functional (clean, stocked) washroom.

Internet WIFI should be treated as a condiment. A business that can't afford condiments probably shouldn't be in business.

> Do you think hotels and restaurants can deliver reliable internet without charging for it?

Many do. I've never seen a restaurant charging for Wifi, and I've seen plenty offering it for free. Quality varies, some are good, some suck. Hotels are all over them map, but I just stayed at the hotel that advertises free high quality Wifi (and it indeed was fine) as one of the amenities.

US-centric, of course, in some places I guess it many be too expensive for restaurants to do this.

It shouldn't be too expensive for a restaurant to do.

Although a restaurant can get by without wifi, most modern restaurants have it for managing OpenTable, monitoring yelp reviews, ordering supplies online, etc.

I guess the signal might get a bit worse the farther away you get from the wifi router, but in general, providing wifi to customers shouldn't cost any additional money.

I think the real cost isn't that they use wifi, but that they actually sit around longer but purchase less in their time spent at the establishment. It's really important for restaurants to turn tables over quickly.

People usually don't lurk in those places anyway, I think. Usually there are coffee shops etc. that are much more open to that kind of thing.

"It shouldn't be too expensive for a restaurant to do."

Heck, most McDonalds restaurants have free wifi these days, and that's about as cheap as it comes.

I see it scaling the same way hannob's example does, with water. Who charges for a drink of water?

Most restaurants in Germany do. You'd have to explicitly and sometimes adamantly request "tap water" to get access to free water, otherwise you'll be served and charged for fancy "mineral water".

Most restaurants in most countries charge extra for a glass of plain water. The USA impresses foreigners with its free universal iced water.

Cost of internet can priced into the prices for goods and services provided