Estonia's 'Johnny Appleseed' of Free Wi-Fi

Starbucks recently started giving out something for free. No, not tall non-fat soy lattes with extra shots, but rather free wireless Internet access. What a concept, huh? Especially for those of us who suck it up and sometimes pay $10 an hour for public Wi-Fi access, or who scramble around from cafe to cafe looking for a free connection. Well, Starbucks might make a big deal out of this, but in Estonia's capital, Tallinn, free public Wi-Fi access is pretty much expected. And that's largely due to one man, Veljo Haamer. Think of him as the "Johnny Appleseed" of free Wi-Fi in Estonia. 

I first reported on Veljo back in 2004 for the BBC. He had visited New York City a couple of years earlier, and found himself in Bryant Park, which had (and still has!) free public Wi-Fi. He got it in his head that he would return to Estonia and work to blanket not just Tallinn, but the entire country (OK, it's a relatively small place) in Wi-Fi. 

He approached a lot of municipal, county and national officials about the idea, but didn't get much traction. So, Veljo started to approach individual cafes and bars. Many in Tallinn thought it was a great idea, a way to add value to someone's coffee-drinking experience. These days, Veljo reckons he has set up Wi-Fi in about 75 percent of the bars and cafes in Tallinn's Old Town. 

In the picture at right, you can see the familiar black and orange sign that is the mark of Veljo's handiwork. You have to love the way the new and old coexist so easily in this part of the world.

Veljo charges a place between $300 and $500 to set up Wi-Fi, and then maintain the connection. The owners of the cafes just build the price of Wi-Fi into their food and drink. "You just need to sit down and pay for your tea, or coffee or cake," says Veljo. "You don't have to spend any coin on Wi-Fi."

It's created a kind of competition among the cafes and bars in Tallinn: "Free Wi-Fi is good for business," Veljo contends, "if someone comes into a bar, and finds out it doesn't have free Wi-Fi, then they'll take their business to the next cafe that does."

I caught up with Veljo again a few weeks ago during a reporting trip to Estonia.

He told me that he's now put free Wi-Fi on two long distance bus lines, one from Tallinn to Riga in Latvia, and on another from Tallinn to St. Petersburg in Russia.

And despite the fact that local officials in Tallinn still aren't offering much help, Veljo continues to push his idea. He's working on ways to harness the power of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare to help cafes and bars better market themselves. 

He's also teamed up with a local cellular provider to pilot test a fourth generation (4G) data service. Veljo told me that as more and more Estonians access the Internet with smart phones, a 4G service makes sense.

We walked along the old city walls and Veljo looked out across the Baltic, where the ferries were headed to Helsinki, Finland. There, Veljo told me, they are already offering free Wi-Fi access on some of the city's trams and busses. "If such a thing exists in Helsinki and has success," he asked, "then why not here in Tallinn?" 

He told me that if city officials won't get on board, he'll continue to work on it by himself. Maybe someone at Starbucks Corporate ought to call him...

You can hear my radio story on Veljo via PRI's The World.

(Photos: Clark Boyd)