FORT LEE, Va. – Sixteen more stores will offer Wi-Fi access for commissary patrons between June and September, according to the Defense Commissary Agency’s follow-up schedule.
Through the Commissary Patron Internet Mobile System, DeCA is gradually opening customer Wi-Fi access at all stateside commissaries to include Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The latest schedule covers the deployment of in-store Wi-Fi to 16 stores in nine states beginning June 22 at Fort Rucker and Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, and Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport in Florida.
The deployment schedule for the remaining 60 stateside stores will begin the first quarter of fiscal 2016. DeCA is also looking at eventually expanding access to its 62 stores overseas, said Duane Woodfin, an information technology specialist and wireless expert at DeCA headquarters.
“We don’t have a schedule yet for our commissaries in Europe or the Pacific,” Woodfin said. “However, those stores are on our radar and, tentatively, we hope to have them online by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016.”
Through May 13, patron Wi-Fi has been deployed to 103 stores in Virginia, Puerto Rico, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota, Idaho, Washington, Montana, Arizona, Texas, Alaska, California and Nevada.
In-store Wi-Fi allows patrons to use their smart phones and tablets to access the Internet and websites such as www.commissaries.com, where they can download digital coupons for the Commissary Rewards Card, read sales information from the DeCA sales flyer, and obtain information from the “Savings Aisle” for access to promotional prices.