Imagine pulling out your laptop in a Timothy’s and being able to check your mail or log on to your company’s intranet. Following in the wake of similar efforts by Starbucks and McDonald’s in the U.S., Timothy’s World Coffee is introducing Wi-Fi, or ‘hotspot’ access, to its 134 stores in Canada that will allow you to do exactly that.

Andrew Resnick, SVP, operations and marketing, says the coffee shop’s demo includes mobile professionals who can benefit from high-speed connectivity away from the office or home. ‘It’s an added convenience for our guests and provides yet another reason to visit Timothy’s,’ he says.

Access is being provided via Toronto-based firms Spotnik Mobile and Telus Mobility. The service uses a communications technology known as the 802.11b protocol – or Wi-Fi – that allows users to remotely access a network or surf the Net.

‘The agreement is signed and we’re working on a roadmap from a deployment perspective,’ says Mark Wolinsky, co-founder and co-CEO of Spotnik Mobile. ‘Likely, we’ll see all of their locations rolled out within the next 18 months.’

Users will subscribe to one of three plans – one-hour, 24-hour or monthly – priced at $9, $15 and $50, respectively.

Resnick says there are marketing plans to bundle the competitive advantages of all three players – Timothy’s, Spotnik and Telus – to maximize opportunities and drive customers and revenue into all three businesses. ‘Our local store marketing will include decals in the store, tent cards, posters and brochures.’

Messaging will be geared toward call-to-action and include cross-promotion with the two other partners. Resnick says Timothy’s is in discussions with Telus to leverage the latter’s ‘huge customer base’ to reach out to more consumers. ‘The marketing we will be doing with Spotnik and its partner Telus will be to drive customers into our locations.’

Timothy’s competitors don’t want to be left behind either. Second Cup is also piloting hotspot access. On Aug. 1, 10 Ontario and two Calgary locations were Wi-Fi enabled. Second Cup expects the service, provided by Calgary-based NetWireless, to roll out to more locations ‘before the fall,’ says the coffee purveyor’s director of marketing, Mike Arseneault.

‘Making Second Cup more of a destination for people who are looking for meetings or to sit down and open a laptop, is a service opportunity that we’ve been looking at,’ adds Arseneault. ‘There’ll be some limited marketing around the pilot and then potentially a bit more as we roll it out.’

Although Wi-Fi’s popularity has been growing in North America, it has been plagued by reports of security concerns – namely, that it’s too easy for hackers to break into corporate networks. However, Spotnik’s Wolinsky says security is no longer an issue. He says standards have ‘gone way up’ in the last year and that Spotnik offers 128-bit SSL encryption, which is the strongest level of protection commercially available and the same one used for services like online banking.