Earlier today I was at a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, between 5 and 6PM to be precise. After firing up my computer and entering their pin to get past their browser start page, I found that I really couldn’t do anything because it was just too slow. And it’s not as if I was doing anything that was bandwidth intensive; just trying to read and post here and also check a couple of online accounts. I’ve noticed the same thing at an independent cafe that I frequent. OTOH, when I go to a Starbucks, where the Internet access is provided by AT&T Wireless, it’s still fine. Also, of course, it’s fine when I use the computer at home.
Is a general decline in the quality of publicly provided Internet access something that anyone else has noticed? Are the coffee shops purposely dialing down the quality to prevent people ordering only a single small coffee then occupying a seat for four hours while they work online? I do know of one other independent cafe that decided to turn off their wi-fi access all weekend, and all afternoon on weekdays.
It’s bad enough I can’t do this at the local university campus; now are the coffee shops trying to get rid of me too?