Just two weeks ago, I was back in town when my mother passed away. When it came time to write her obituary, my sisters and I decided to write it over lunch and e-mail it to Newcomer Funeral Home so that it could be published. We stopped at a few eating establishments in the city only to be informed that they did not have WiFi for their customers to use. We finally gave up searching and remained at the last place we stopped. After writing the obituary, we went to the Monroe Clinic Hospital where we sent the e-mail using their free WiFi service.

Over the past two years, I have lived in Massachusetts and North Carolina. Even in cities with populations of under 15,000 people, I have not yet found a café, coffee shop, deli or restaurant that did not provide free WiFi service to its customers. I often see dozens of customers sitting at tables eating sandwiches and drinking beverages with their laptops buzzing in front of them.

In this day and age where so many people are spending their lunch hours performing work, a smart business owner could certainly reap the benefit of luring those same people out of their offices by offering free WiFi. Students from Blackhawk Tech, attorneys, courthouse employees, westside business employees and countless others would certainly capitalize on such an opportunity. And think of the money they would spend on coffee, food and snacks while having the ability to get away from the office, yet get their work done too.

Just a thought.