Not exactly enclosed-mall-Fi, but the Kansas City Star reports today that both the Country Club Plaza and the Legends shopping center across from the Kansas Speedway in western Wyandotte County are now hotzones.
That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that only the latter offering is free and-let us hope-open. What on earth are Highwoods and Time Warner thinking? It's bad enough that whatever you buy on the Plaza carries an extra one-percent sales tax lug (which is why the new MacBook Pro that a certain contributor to this blog recently acquired was ordered online rather than picked up at the local Apple Store). Do they really think that enough Plaza shoppers are going to plunk down an outrageous $9 for the dubious privilege of using an outdoor hotspot for a day-or an equally outrageous $35 for a month's access-to make this worth doing? Why wouldn't they just stroll over to the Plaza Library-or perhaps take up an impromptu seat near that aforementioned Apple Store-and use all the free Wi-Fi they want?
Dollars to doughnuts says Time Warner makes like Sprint did up at the airport and bails out of this location within a year.
Or...maybe they and Highwoods will come to their senses and start looking forward like their West Wyandotte counterparts. The Legends' owners understand that in an era of cell phones, you can't attract shoppers to a venue by building more pay-phone booths, and you can't entice them to tote their laptops along and stick around once they get there by announcing up front that you'll pick their pockets while they do.
It'll be a while, but unless one of you would care to head out there now and check it out for us, look for a full review of the Legends network as soon as one of us can get away for a visit.
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