APRIL 14, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - McDonald's Corp. plans to use the Wi-Fi network it announced yesterday to deliver a wide range of digital content to customers, including music files, and to support in-house business applications, such as cashless payment systems, according to an IT executive at the company.

Jim Sappington, the fast-food chain's vice president for U.S. information technology, said the four-year Wi-Fi deal that Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's signed with Wayport Inc. goes far beyond providing wireless Internet access to customers (see story).

Wayport, based in Austin, will install high-speed DSL lines in 3,000 restaurants this year and another 3,000 by mid-2005 to support the Wi-Fi service. Sappington said those network connections will also be used to support the company's cashless payment system. Wayport CEO Dan Vucina said the cashless payment system will be firewalled from the public-access network and will require a minimal amount of bandwidth.

Wayport will offer two-hour Wi-Fi sessions for $2.95 an hour, as well as other pricing options, said Dan Lowden, vice president of marketing at Wayport,.

McDonald's also plans to use the in-store W-Fi system to deliver MP3 music files to customers, with teenagers a likely target market for this service, Sappington said. The company is in talks with a number of digital music suppliers, but Sappington declined to identify them.

In late March, the Los Angeles Times reported that McDonald's and Sony Connect, the digital music download division of Sony Corp., had a deal to provide digital content to McDonald's customers, with music clips provided free to customers who purchase certain menu items. Lisa Gephardt, a spokeswoman for Sony Connect, said the two companies had plans for a promotional deal to provide Big Mac purchasers with a code to receive a free music download.

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