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Highlands Today

A Wireless World

Jasmina Meyer, Highlands Today

From left: Dee and Larry Rooze check their e-mail using their new laptop at Wendy's recently in Sebring.

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: March 4, 2009

SEBRING - When Chad Radt wants to video-conference with his boss and co-workers, he heads to Panera Bread, a bakery in Shelby Crossing shopping center.

While Dee and Larry Rooze keep in touch with their friends back home in Indiana, they grab a cup of coffee and a table for two in the back of Wendy's, in north Sebring.

"We didn't want to pay for Internet at the house," said Dee Rooze. She and her husband, who are from Crawfordsville, Ind., are wintering here for a few months.

But instead of paying a hook-up fee to an Internet provider, they quickly found wi-fi hotspots in Sebring, places where the Internet is broadcast with radio waves.

In Sebring, for instance, the Internet is free at the public libraries, Inn on the Lakes and Brewsters coffee house. At McDonald's, it's free if customers purchase any item. At Books-A-Million, customers can get wi-fi for a year with a $15 card. Most hotels give a wi-fi password to overnight guests.

"We get e-mail from our son and our family. We read the news. We read the Journal & Courier from Lafayette, and the Crawfordsville Journal Review," said Dee Rooze, 63.

Wi-fi may seem like new technology (actually, it was invented in 1991) but it's implanted in modern computers and phones, so it's effortlessly embraced by young and old. Over half of the adult Internet population is between 18 and 44 years old, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, but that means the other half is 45 or older.

The Roozes certainly didn't resist this new technology. Their desktop computer needed to be upgraded anyway, so they went to Office Depot and found a bargain on a top-of-the-line HP laptop. Now, the laptop goes everywhere they go, to Sanibel Island, for instance, which has long been one of their favorite Florida vacation spots.

When they arrive at their destination, vacationers can tote their laptop to the pool and surf the 'Net for shopping bargains, maps, hotels, restaurants and events.

According to ABI Research's WI-FI Hotspots Forecasts, the number of global hotspots in 2008 grew by 40 percent over 2007.

Some businesses charge for wi-fi: Starbucks and Barnes & Noble are examples. Using AT&T or Embarq networks, they use credit cards to collect as much as $3.95 per session.

Why do restaurants like Wendy's offer free wi-fi service?

"I already had wi-fi in the stores, so I thought, why not just open up and let customers, and the traveling salesmen and the people who want to come in and use it and hang out?" said Joe Johnston, chief operations officer for 11 Wendy's franchises from Davenport to Arcadia. They include the four cafes in Highlands County.

"It doesn't cost me a dime," Johnston explained. "And I'd rather have them sitting in my restaurant than someone else's restaurant."

Manda LaVan, 18, of Avon Park, prefers privacy, so she chose a table in an alcove, the farthest spot away from Panera's front counter. Currently undecided on her major, she attends South Florida Community College.

On this day, she checked her homework assignments where teachers post them these days, online. "They don't give you paper anymore," LaVan said. After she finishes, then she may go to Facebook and contact old friends back in Virginia.

Radt sells an online degree program for The College Network. Decades ago, traveling salesmen picked restaurants if the pie was good and there was a sign outside which said, "Public Telephone."

"I chose Panera because of its free wireless," Radt said, who was occupying a table near the door, laptop open, ready to video conference. His home is in New Tampa, near his office, so he wouldn't have enough time to drive back before the 3 p.m. business meeting began.

On other days, he's out in his central Florida territory, meeting with students in their homes. Then he finds a hot-spot like Panera.

There's coffee, bagels, muffins, and Radt prefers working on his computer in public, where people eat, drink and chat.

"I turn in my orders, and check e-mail," he said.

What Is Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi is short for wireless fidelity. It's a way to connect laptops, mobile phones and video games to the Internet, but without wires.

Wireless devices have chips that both receive and transmit high-frequency radio waves. The chips connect with DSL or cable modem at hotels or restaurants that are actually wired to the Internet.

Highlands Today senior reporter Gary Pinnell can be reached at 863-386-5828 or gpinnell@highlandstoday.com

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