TGI NEWS – Official: Dinner Manners Dead

Statistics from a new device, that allows anyone to freely browse the Internet through their phone, reveal that 1 in 4 diners in TGI Friday’s Dundrum are using the service to check Facebook and search Google instead of sharing the time with family and friends.

“We’ve had people chatting with friends over IM, reading emails and even checking their CAO offers,” said  TGI Friday’s Marketing Manager Liz Gale.  “Being able to browse the internet on the go is now as important as being able to make calls on the go as so much of our lives are led online.  This might bode badly for table manners but people are increasingly co-ordinating their lives on Facebook and Bebo so browsing them in a restaurant is as normal as taking a call at dinner.”

After an initial trial of the service in its Dundrum branch revealed high interest in simultaneously eating and Facebooking, TGI Fridays is now expanding the free internet service across all its restaurants nationwide- St. Stephens Green, Blanchardstown and Blackrock in Dublin as well as Victoria Square in Belfast.

The service is provided by BlueZone Media and works by letting anyone with a Bluetooth equipped mobile phone to browse the internet in a shop, bus or plane.  Kevin O’Connor, MD of BlueZone Media says:“The BlueZone device is facilitating the vast majority of TGI customers to enjoy a quick browse while they eat.  Unlike other services you don’t need a laptop to go online- once your phone has bluetooth, which the vast majority have, then it’s free to use.”

BlueZone has supplied the service in locations as diverse as restaurants and car dealerships.  They have been nominated for Fleet Magazine’s transport innovation award for their work in providing free internet on buses across the country.

“Facebook revealed that they are now expecting their one millionth Irish member within three months and that the average user spends 30 minutes per day on the site.  As it and other social networking sites continue to grow in popularity so to will public demand to access them wherever they are.” added Bluezone Managing Director Kevin O’Connor.

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