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An end to free wi-fi at McDonalds?

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  • An end to free wi-fi at McDonalds?

    McDonalds around the world has traditionally been a place you could always find a free wi-fi connection, but that may be about to change.

    Recently, I spent a couple of weeks in Bucharest on business, and my hotel wi-fi had an annoying tendency to crash, so I found myself walking half a block to a McDonalds to get on the internet fairly often. The first couple of times, the availible connections list showed the usual McDonalds Free WiFI, but after that it started coming up as ''McDonalds wifi - 5 lei''. When I clicked on it, I still got wifi free, but it appears to be a phase in to alert customers that paid wifi is coming. Since then, I have spent a few days each in Iasi and Suceava and out of curiosity went to McDonalds there and again it came up as McDonalds wifi - 5 lei in both cities. I don't know if this is for now just a Romania thing, if Romania is a test for the whole system, or if this is appearing all over. I will be spending a few days in Vienna shortly, and it will be interesting to see if I encounter the same thing there. Five lei is US$1.25 and nothing so far indicates how much time you get for that. Vienna will be interesting to see, as they are big on extra charges, such as all of the fastfoods, including McDonalds having had pay restrooms for years, where you cannot even wash your hands without paying to enter the restroom. If Bucharest McDonalds has this wifi fee, it is likely Vienna does, too.

  • #2
    Mickey D is having some financial problems and may be doing some belt tightening as a result.

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    • #3
      Try Starbucks.
      I used the wifi at Starbucks in Spain.
      It was still free then, not sure about today.

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      • #4
        KFC is another one that everywhere I have been has had free wifi.

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        • #5
          I checked a McDonalds just off Kartnerstrasse in Vienna yesterday evening, and they still had free wifi and it was labelled free wifi (or wlan), so I guess for now this might be just a Romania thing.

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          • #6
            I am convinced now that this is a Romania-only thing for the present. I have not seen it anywhere else. And it seems still to come up saying it costs 5 lei there, but you still get on for free. At least that was the case when I was in Bucharest for most of a day last week, and I walked a couple of blocks to use wi-fi at a McDonalds after the wi-fi at City Grill where I was having dinner was on the fritz.

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            • #7
              It was free in Prague at Macdonalds 2 weeks ago.

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