The Borders bookstore chain charges for Wi-Fi through T-Mobile, which takes care of the backend IT and network management. The amount that customers pay varies according to the length of service they want, notes spokeswoman Mary Davis. Borders customers can pay $9.99 for a day pass, which offers 24-hour, unlimited access from all T-Mobile hotspots. Hourly rates are also available.

Starbucks offers a number of payment options for its Wi-Fi service. At the base level, two hours will cost customers $3.99. However, the coffee purveyor has recently announced ways to get "complimentary" Wi-Fi service, taking great pains to not use the word "free."

The most notable method is that customers who registered their Starbucks Rewards card and agreed to receive four marketing e-mails per year from service provider AT&T can receive 2 free consecutive hours of free Wi-Fi access per day. Customers must use their rewards card—to make a purchase or load more money on it—at least once a month. Also, AT&T's more than 12 million DSL customers can get free Wi-Fi at Starbucks. (To read how IT can help Starbucks' companywide transformation, see "How IT Systems Can Help Starbucks Fix Itself.")

Schatt says that Starbucks' move from a paid Wi-Fi hotspot business model to a "virtually free" one is a bellwether event for the industry. Most significant is that Starbucks' change is emblematic of a phased approach that businesses will mostly likely take in the near future, he says, from charging for Wi-Fi, to almost free with ties to a loyalty program, and then eventually to free for everybody. (Interestingly, McDonald's recently announced a partnership with Free-Hotspot.com to offer free Wi-Fi hotspot service in Belgium, which stands in stark contrast to its U.S. strategy right now.)

A big reason hotspot owners will be willing to move toward this business model, Schatt contends, is the recognition that "charging for service is counter-productive in the long run because the real money will be in value-add content downloads." Again, one can see evidence of that at Starbucks: Customers can wirelessly buy and download music to their laptops or iPhones via the iTunes Music Store at Starbucks.

And the accumulated CRM data will prove to be a boon to businesses. "If they know something about their customers," Schatt says, "then [the business] can build up a database on people and offer very targeted and customized offerings, and probably have a much higher hit rate." In contrast, Borders, for example, does not have a Wi-Fi tie in with the more than 27 million members of its Borders Rewards loyalty program.

Wayport's McKeand says that when he begins working with a new partner, the executives always ask whether their company should charge customers for the Wi-Fi service. "If the [business] can create some other form of value, we just don't see the need to give it away unnecessarily, but we're also saying they don't necessarily need to charge for it," McKeand says. "We're just saying: Don't give it away for free without trading off some kind of value because it's not free to the property. We think they should get something in return for it."