If you're a heavy mobile Wi-Fi user or you like to download coupons while shopping, you're probably pretty happy that the commissary system is working to join us all in the 21st century by adding Wi-Fi to their stateside stores. Commissaries somehow manage to be a cell signal black hole in many instances. And then there are the ones that are located on bases where the cell signal is just bad in general. Wi-Fi in the commissary in those places is a gift from heaven.
In early April the Defense Commissary System (DeCA) announced a roll-out plan for 106 of the 200-odd U.S. locations. To log into it you just need to accept the system's user agreement, just like you would while using Wi-Fi at Starbucks, for example. But missing from that list were most of those in Florida and all of them in Alabama, for example.
Now some of those have an expected roll-out date, officials said. Sixteen more stores have been slated for the project between now and mid-September. They are:
Alabama: June 22 - Fort Rucker; Aug. 17 - Maxwell Air Force Base
Florida: June 22 - Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport
Oklahoma: July 6 - Altus Air Force Base and Fort Sill
Texas: July 6 - Sheppard Air Force Base and Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth
Colorado: July 27 - U.S. Air Force Academy and Peterson Air Force Base
Mississippi: Aug. 17 - Naval Air Station Meridian and Columbus Air Force Base
New York: Sept. 7 - Naval Support Activity Saratoga Springs and Fort Drum
Massachusetts: Sept. 7 - Hanscom Air Force Base
New Hampshire: Sept. 7 - Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
You can see the original list of 106 stores over here.
As for the remaining 60 or so stateside stores, officials said, Wi-Fi is scheduled to be added mid to late fall of this year. The roll-out has taken longer in some places than others because of infrastructure upgrades that are needed to make it possible. Those changes were already planned, so officials said adding Wi-Fi to the stores doesn't come with any additional cost to the system.
Officials also plan to make this change OCONUS eventually as well. But for now it's just a tentative plan, and likely won't happen until summer 2016.
Have you use the in-store Wi-Fi? Does it work?
