Food and atmosphere are generally what attract people to restaurants, but soon wireless Internet connectivity may help restaurant owners draw in the dinner crowd.
MobileStar Network Corp. in Richardson, Texas, is working with San Francisco-based One Market Restaurant to provide Internet coverage for its patrons. By the end of the year, MobileStar said customers with a LAN card-supported wireless device will be able to access their corporate LAN and search the Internet via MobileStar’s QuikLink technology.
“In the past, we have installed temporary lines to accommodate the needs of our corporate customers,” said Quinn McKenna, director of operations for One Market Restaurant. “MobileStar’s QuikLink service will provide One Market with a much more efficient and profitable way to manage these events.”
“This is a great opportunity for One Market to differentiate themselves as a leading edge, high-tech restaurant offering their guests a unique way to save time and stay connected,” said W. Mark Goode, chief executive officer of MobileStar.
Users of the service have the option of using it on an as-needed basis-unlimited access costs $2.50 for a 24-hour period-or they can subscribe to the service on a monthly basis and use at any time wherever MobileStar is deployed. The service area includes several American Airlines’ Admirals Clubs across the nation, as well as hotel rooms and lobbies. Overall, the company maintains more than 130 active sites.
MobileStar employs “hot spot networking,” seeking out the locations where people eat, move, sleep or travel. Goode refers to this as the “mobility ribbon.”
“The goal is to provide broadband connectivity in the places you live,” Goode said.
Operating in 85 megahertz of spectrum in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz frequency band, MobileStar installs pico cells in buildings that can cover an area only as large as a few square city blocks. This enables the company to offer very high data rate speeds from 1.6 Megabits per second up to 11 Mbps.
“There’s a trade-off between footprint and bandwidth,” Goode said.
In the coming year QuikLink technology will be in other eating locations, including local coffee houses and eateries.
