Vending machines are popular in Japan. Almost all streets in Japan have one or more. The popularity of these devices gave some individuals an idea to upgrade them and make more money out of it.
The drink company Asahi are introducing a new type of vending machine. Over the next 12 months, they will be upgrading or distributing their machines to have Wi-Fi capability. Turning these selling contraptions into hotspots is a nice idea considering that people nowadays have Wi-Fi capability phones or devices.
The range of the signal being emitted from the machines can reach about 50 meters. It is free to use. You don’t have to buy something in order for you to use their signal. You can use the signal for 30 minutes before it cuts out. Asahi is hoping that those individuals using the Wi-Fi signal would buy a cold drink. But it is not an assured.
The company has about 250,000 vending machines around Japan. They will initially set-up 1,000 of this Wi-Fi enabled devices. They are hoping to increase this number to about 10,000 machines by 2017.
Free Wi-Fi is a rarity in Japan. So this move by Asahi could lead to people huddling around this single machine with their Wi-Fi capable devices at hand.
Image source: Crunchyroll.com
