• Survey of Rural Challenges
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

4 Reasons for small towns to setup downtown wifi areas

By Becky McCray

Free wifi sign
Individual businesses offer wifi now. Is there any good reason to set up downtown-wide wifi? Here are four. Photo by Becky McCray.

“Becky….we are looking at installing a downtown wifi area. What are your thoughts on that? I think it is awesome but I know I am going to get….’oh, sure…now the development corp is going to supply free wifi to people! They can pay for their own!'”
Angie Schmidt Benz
Moffit, North Dakota

Here are four reasons to consider offering a downtown wifi area:

  1. Wifi is crucial for tourism.
  2. Wifi is important to downtown businesses.
  3. Wifi is important for truck- and trailer- based businesses and mobile merchants like vendor booths to take credit cards.
  4. Wifi is important for future smart city internet-of-things sensors and data that the city and others will want to develop.

Now, where can you learn more about towns that are doing something similar now? Dig around for resources on these two websites:

  1. MuniWireless.com
  2. MuniNetworks.org
  • About the Author
  • Latest by this Author
Becky McCray wearing long braids and a professional outfit smiles as she stands on a rural downtown street with twinkling lights in the background.
Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

www.beckymccray.com
  • Want to Open a Cafe? Start With Wing Night Wednesdays
  • Small town marketing secret: Have something to invite people to
  • More experience-based retail: the Charm Bar, Valentine's Rose Bouquet Bar

June 27, 2016 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, rural, tourism Tagged With: remote work, rural sourcing, zoom towns

Wondering what is and is not allowed in the comments?
Or how to get a nifty photo beside your name?
Check our commenting policy.
Use your real name, not a business name.


Don't see the comment form?
Comments are automatically closed on older posts, but you can send me your comment via this contact form and I'll add it manually for you. Thanks!

Comments

  1. katy says

    June 28, 2016 at 2:42 pm

    Great question Angie! It drives me crazy to get to Mc C or other small towns that are in ‘the dip’ and get zero service… WiFi would be invaluable!! Ohhhmy… and the tourism perks.. I can think of a dozen reasons why you should have it there! :)

    • Becky McCray says

      July 1, 2016 at 11:11 am

      Thanks, Katy. It can be tough to face the opposition you know is coming, but it helps to have a few responses ready.

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Partners

We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses. Logo with "Shop Indie Local"Move Your Money, bank local, invest localMulticolor logo with text that says "Global Entrepreneurship Week"Save Your Town logotype

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2026 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in