I just found out about this very interesting piece of news, which is about a month old, but I'd never heard about.

TGI Friday's, the well-known restaurant chain are now offering free internet access (via bluetooth) in all of their four restaurants in Ireland. Here's more from the press release:

BlueZone Media has agreed a deal with restaurant chain TGI Friday’s to supply free internet access in each of the chain’s four restaurants nationwide. The service enables anyone with a bluetooth mobile phone to surf the web for free and has been selected by TGI Friday’s after a successful trial in their Dundrum restaurant. TGI Friday’s St. Stephens Green, Blanchardstown and Blackrock in Dublin as well as Victoria Square in Belfast will offer the service.

As bluetooth mobile phones are now nearly ubiquitous, the service allows more customers to enjoy the benefits of the BlueZone service than a standard WiFi enabled hotspot.

To date statistics from the service show that one in four diners in TGI Friday’s Dundrum are using it, with a large number checking Facebook and searching Google.

“Being able to browse the internet on the go is now as important as being able to make calls on the go as so much of our lives are led online. We’ve had people chatting with friends over IM, updating their Facebook and even checking their CAO offers in TGI Friday’s. The great advantage of the BlueZone device is that it allows the vast majority of our customers to enjoy a quick browse while they eat, without the need for a laptop.” said Liz Gale of TGI FRIDAYS.

This type of interactive bluetooth marketing service is very interesting in this particular setting. Will people adopt it and start using it, or will they reject such services in these settings? They go there to eat after all, usually with friends who they go to see, don't they?

Somewhat surprisingly, here's what Liz Gale of TGI Friday's reveals:

“This might bode badly for table manners but people are increasingly co-ordinating their lives on Facebook and Bebo so browsing them in a restaurant is as normal as taking a call at dinner.”

...

Statistics from a new device, that allows anyone to freely browse the Internet through their phone, reveal that 1 in 4 diners in TGI Friday’s Dundrum are using the service to check Facebook and search Google instead of sharing the time with family and friends.

“We’ve had people chatting with friends over IM, reading emails and even checking their CAO offers,” said TGI Friday’s Marketing Manager Liz Gale. “Being able to browse the internet on the go is now as important as being able to make calls on the go as so much of our lives are led online. This might bode badly for table manners but people are increasingly co-ordinating their lives on Facebook and Bebo so browsing them in a restaurant is as normal as taking a call at dinner.”

Great stuff! I can't wait to see long-term results from this service, to see if this is something that TGI Friday's, or other restaurant chains, will fully adopt in their restaurants across a number of cities/countries.

It is obvious to me that if they do they will have created a huge bluetooth network, which offers huge potential for more exciting services. Let's just wait and see...