Surfing the net at Macdonald

I had been trying to do some work at Macdonald recently using the Singtel Wireless@SG Plus and found myself in a new environment compared to few years back.

No, it's not some kids surfing porno in Macdonald but more people are using Macdonald as study location or office. The mess they left behind includes messy eraser residue, chili spread inside coca cola cups and etc.

One look across the whole Macdonald, you can see laptops all over the places making use of the free wireless access and surfing nice sites and probably using it for work or home works. The people are staying in Macdonald much longer then usual, taking up the space for dining and eating. It's odd but I do have a feeling that Mac might remove the wireless services pretty soon as the space for dining are not really effectively utilized. The reasons why the chairs are made out of hard plastic and not soft cushions is not because they are cheap...but because they don't want customers to sit there for too long taking up space for other customers.

I too stayed in Macdonald for about 2-3 hours waiting for my movie to start in the theater and use the time surfing the net and do some catch up in my emails and of course do some work if possible. The only problem is lacking of power sockets for every table for the laptops to last more then the battery life.

Yes, Macbook does have long lifespan but my point is what is the new business opportunity in solving this very problem? This can be a new venue for laptop users to go to with power sockets that charges people by the minute or a cool outdoor surfing hang out locations that have a shelter and nice environment....for study or work. Maybe solving the battery lifespan is the new opportunity? Who have more power to laptops? Renewable Energy?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Instead of removing the wireless access, they can actually charge the those who wants to use the wireless. I am willing to pay a small fee like $1 - $2 per hour to surf the internet. I think MacDonald is an ideal place for study as long as you buy something

Simon Tay said...

Well, they are earning that within one minute the next customer walks in and buy a coke or something.

The question is I did pay for the wireless@SG Plus (additional bandwidth) from Singnet.

So, in fact the Wireless@SG is not actually free ya? It's paid by those user like me who want to see a youtube at wireless.

By the way, M1 have a plan that allow user to plug in a USB dongle that can dial up a internet broadband anywhere in Singapore...YES anywhere...including the beach...or that kopitiam.

Anonymous said...

I think MacDonald is not a suitable place for study as is too noisy. The best place to study is still the airport. They have many power plugs there for laptop.

Simon Tay said...

When I was like 26 I had been to the viewing gallery of the Airport to wait for my friend to and sneakily brought the laptop there....used the power cable there near the floor.

It's ok there, nice and quiet but a bit strange sitting on the floor to do some study...

The cleaner gave me a strange look when he drove the cleaner machine by me ;)

Any place in Airport that have the power plugs and a table?

Anonymous said...

You can try burger king, they have a few power points there