Nothing goes for free now: Charging a mobile phone in a cafe? Pay up, says Vienna owner

The days of charging your phone for free may be gone,
 at least in one cafe in Vienna.

Tired of clients plugging their devices for hours, cafe 
owner Galina Pokorny now charges €1 ($1.06; £0.85) for
 those who take too long charging.

"Tourists - always electricity, electricity, electricity. Sorry
 but who is going to pay me for it?" she said.

A recharge during a 15-minute coffee is still fine. More
 than that will add to the bill.

The fee applies also to laptops and tablets and it is 
multiplied by the number of devices being recharged.

"I run a cafe, not an internet cafe," she was quoted by 
Reuters news agency as saying.

"It's getting more and more extreme. People come and
 think everything is accessible and free... You don't even
 open your eyes in the morning for free."

Ms Pokorny thinks hers was the first cafe to introduce 
such a fee in Austria, which came in last year - it only
 came to light this week when a newspaper reported 
on the "bizarre bill" containing the "electricity" charge.

And while some say the fee is fair, others may argue
 its cost is too high. Last year, technology website
 ZDNet calculated how much it costs to charge a 
smartphone during a year: $0.84 if you're in the US (£0.67, €0.79).


But Ms Pokorny is far from being the only one angry at
customers who consume more in internet and electricity
 than coffee.

Some owners also complain about the poor atmosphere created by busy professionals absorbed in their phones, 
rather than friend and family get-togethers.

So to avoid being used as office spaces, some cafes 
have hidden plug sockets, introduced a limit on table 
usage and restricted wi-fi availability - some have even dropped it altogether