Free Wi-Fi Coming To Japanese Vending Machines

cylonlover writes "Free Wi-Fi is on its way to some Japanese vending machines. Working much like a mobile hotspot at your local coffee shop, people located near the machines would be able to connect to the internet for 30 minutes at a time and surf the web. The service is available to anyone, to use with any smartphone, tablet, or computer and does not require the purchase of a drink from the machine."

Free wifi or Japanese "free" wifi?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a ton of "free" wifi services available in Japan, where "free" means that if you're subscribed to some service you pay for (mobile phone, home internet and what not) and are getting the wifi as a "free" add-on in the package. So, one can see tons of hotspots everywhere, but if trying to use any those requires an ID (or, very rarely, some payment). Somehow I think this will turn out to be one of those services, and not the really free free wi-fi.

Vending machines in Japan

[0olong]

The significance of this development is probably not obvious unless you have ever been to Japan. Vending machines there are absolutely everywhere. Whether you're in the city, some suburb outskirt, a picturesque country side village, or even halfway up some random mountain, the nearest roadside vending machine is rarely more than a few stone throws away.

Since Asahi is one of the big players in the market, this could be made into a huge WiFi mesh.