A while ago I had a comment on this topic -- well, it looks like there's another coffee shop offering free wi-fi recently opened in Bucharest - somewhere in a posh area, in Dorobanti (specifically on Radu Beller st). Well, Romanians certainly are quick in following the hype - a good context for understanding the underlying stratgey is over at Anita's Small Business Trends - also don't miss the comments.
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ASE and Politehnica also offer free Wifi access for their students in some spots donated by Intel and Flamingo. In the airport there is also Wifi coverage and some hotels have that too.
I haven't seen this coffee shop, and I'm up in Radu Beller every day. Is it open yet? ISTM that the competitive advantage gained by wi-fi will be short lived; in a few years, everyone will have it. Still might be worth doing, of course. I expect my next laptop (in a month or two) will have wireless, and then, yah, I might move to this new coffeeshop. (In preference to Cafe Brasilia, which is my current favorite in the area.) I do a fair number of meetings in coffee shops rather than in my very crowded office, so wireless would be a real convenience. ...it's funny how there's such a cluster of them up there on Radu Beller. I can understand why a cluster, but why a cluster /there/? I live in the neighborhood, and while it's comfortable -- lots of nice old houses -- I don't understand why Mario Plaza and the Radu Beller strip are there. Have the beautiful people nowhere else to go? Doug M.
Doug - I have no idea where BTCafe is located exactly on Radu Beller street since I haven't yet had the chance to go see it. I firstly read about it on a Sapte Seri then on the link provided up in the post. The wifi addon certainly makes it a good office place, but I guess that it also depends on the noise level, you may have notice that usually the music is rather loud in Romanian cafes. As for the pubs/stores clusters - there are similar others in Bucharest, the one from Dorobanti has a close connection with the communist times whereas the area was the place to live for several officials of those times. Consequently after 89 I think that Dorobanti market (piata) has become one of Bucharest's most expensive actually. And so have the pubs, the apartments or the office spaces - ya know, the spillover effects. George - in my office area (Victoria shopping mall) there's several wifi spots, none free.
Hey all!
Like a dilligent entrepreneur that I am, I look to see where my clients come from and where they possibly lurke. I see that you guys linked my article to your blog, which tells me you're cool.:)
If you don't think this is intruding, I'd like to let you know that there is much more to www.psst.ro than a mere article on an Wi-Fi cafe.
I'm usually where the action is, so if any of you need anything in the "cool, hip, and/or undiscovered" realm, I'll be glad to help. Have a great weekend!