Capital Bars is now offering free wireless internet access in its Dublin bars and hotels following a deal with Free-hotspot.com., which has its headquarters in Ireland

The deal covers all of the hotel and bar group's properties including Café En Seine, Break for the Border, Zanzibar, the Grafton Hotel and Trinity Plaza.

"We have long realised the importance of offering Wi-Fi in our properties," said Jason Denham, group marketing and entertainment manager for Capital Bars. "However, these days people view Wi-Fi as an amenity and they are simply unwilling to pay for it. We needed to upgrade our old paid-for service and encourage people to take advantage of the facility. The free-hotspot.com system has proved to be the perfect solution for our locations."

Free-hotspot.com operates more than 1,400 hot spot locations in 16 countries across Europe located in hotels, cafés, restaurants, pubs, petrol stations and other public venues.

In exchange for free internet access, users are asked to view an ad before getting online. Further ads are served up at regular 45 minute intervals while the user remains online. Free-hotspot.com plans to have 100 free hotspots in its Irish network by the end of the year. It is working with local installation partners in cities around the State and is actively recruiting owners of public spaces to install its service.

Dublin-based Lan Technologies installed the hotspots in the Capital Bars properties.

Free-hotspot.com is owned by Anacapa Holdings, which is registered in Dublin. Anacapa Holdings is owned by the Toomey Family Trust based in Moorepark, California. The service claims to be providing internet access for 300,000 people across Europe each month.