WiFi gets wide welcome - Most restaurant owners have described WiFi as a necessary service and welcomed the plan...

WiFi gets wide welcome

PETALING JAYA: Most restaurant owners have described WiFi as a necessary service and welcomed the plan to make it compulsory for them to offer the service.

However, there were also those who felt that making it compulsory would eat into their profits and result in more “seat warmers.”

Palate Palette proprietor Su Ann Wong said free WiFi services for customers was a must in the current IT era. She said Internet services had brought in more customers to her restaurant.

“It will be hard to survive without it. There were times where customers left when the WiFi service was down,” said the 33-year-old, who relies on the social networking site Facebook to draw in more customers.

On Friday, Kuala Lumpur Mayor Datuk Seri Ahmad Fuad Ismail announced that all restaurants in the city would have to provide WiFi services by next year.

Presently, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) only encourages restaurants to provide the service but the condition will be implemented as part of the business licence for 2012.

Wong urged the Government to provide fast and reliable WiFi services to restaurants in order to encourage more operators to provide the service.

“This would encourage more restaurant owners to provide the service for their customers,” she added.

Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Presma) president Noorul Hassan Saul Hameed said the Government should provide incentives to encourage more restaurant operators to provide the service but did not want it made compulsory.

“Customers wants to be connected via the Internet everywhere they go. But some restaurant owners may not be able to bear the extra costs involved,” he said.

Sri Nirvana Maju owner Amutha Devi disagreed that WiFi services would help attract more patrons to a restaurant, saying more patrons would sit for hours with just a drink.

“There are customers who use their own broadband modem with their laptops and order only a drink, while others queue up for seats,” said the 43-year-old, adding that her workers had to resort to asking them to vacate their seats at times.

“It is not right but we have no choice. There are just too many customers and too little space,” said Amutha.