Beginning on June 30, more than 50 Krystal restaurants in seven states
will
offer free wireless internet access for customers.

“The interest and demand for the convenience of high-speed wireless
internet
access continues to grow,” said Fred Exum, chief executive officer, The
Krystal Company, in a statement. “Krystal is committed to expanding the availability of free
wireless Internet access in our communities. It’s giving Krystal
customers
what they truly want, and they are returning the favor with their
continued
patronage and loyalty.”

Krystal HotSpots use a broadband Internet connection that allows up to
32
users at one time to access the hot spot. Users gain access by
searching
for “Krystal Hotspot” in the Service Set Identifier (SSID). Currently,
the
range of the 802.11b system is approximately 150 feet, allowing
customers to access the hot spot even in the restaurant parking lot. The company says it will block certain types of potentially
objectionable material.

The expansion of Krystal’s free in-store Wi-Fi offering comes a year
after
the successful launch of the first Krystal HotSpot, which was installed
at
the company’s University of Tennessee location in Knoxville. “We
had
been studying the possibility of a Wi-Fi access point in our
restaurants for
more than two years,” said David Reid, Krystal’s chief information officer. “After learning that the entire UT
campus
would be going Wi-Fi, we decided our campus location would be the
perfect
place to launch our first hot spot.”

As University of Tennessee customers embraced the
free HotSpot, Krystal began implementing
Wi-Fi
access points at several of its restaurants in Tennessee and Georgia
while
also planning the current seven-state rollout.