Wireless Paradise

Who doesn’t love wi-fi?

Isn’t it great when you sit out in the garden, reading your favourite blogs? (mine right?)

or when you can send emails from the comfort of your sofa?

or at the office when you can take your laptop into a meeting and are still able to pick up emails, grab that file you forget, etc, etc

So why is it so expensive difficult when your out and about?

Surely the original idea of wireless access was about being connected anywhere?

I hadn’t really given it much thought to be honest but i have been in a couple of situations where i could have done with internet access but either struggled to find somewhere or after seeing the price deciding i didn’t need access THAT much

So why am i suddenly bothered? (and why am i asking so many questions?..see another one!!)

I read a post over at Web Worker Daily that discusses franchises that are a “web workers best friend” and mentions places such as Starbucks, McDonalds and Borders. There were comments that mentioned there are also lots of free offerings.

That got me thinking about free access in the UK. I used the jiwire.com site to look for local hotspots and as with the Web Worker post there are plenty of places you can get paid for access. McDonalds, Starbucks, Borders, Texaco garages, Hotels, pubs, motorway services but free access is (in my experience) pretty hard to come by

For how often i currently use it i can’t justify the cost of a monthly subscription or a 3G data card. But i think it’s a chicken and egg sort of thing. If i did splash out for either of those i’d probably still get my monies worth.

I currently have a simiar “debate” with my in-laws. The claim they don’t need broadband as the £5 a month they pay for their dial-up access is ok for their online banking, email and occasional research but i believe that if they made the move to broadband they would find themselves doing more with it….i digress

There is an article by Barry Colins on the Times Online where he gives his opinion on “the wifi rip off” and asks why can’t coffee shops, sandwich bars, pubs, etc provide free wi-fi with the theory being that it will attract more custom, people will stay longer (and buy more!) and help bring more custom at off peak periods

I also found an article on Zdnet about “virtually free wi-fi” where you buy something and get a thirty minute access code. This is something i’d like to see more of but if i went into somewhere like Starbucks and got free wi-fi i’d buy a drink and probably some food anyway.

There is also the “community wi-fi” option. Richard over at the TubbBlog has been using the FON system. It’s a nice idea in practice but i’m not sure how that would work in towns and city centres?

With people taking laptops everywhere, PDA’s becoming more commonplace, mobile phones with wi-fi capabilites and UMPC’s such as the ASUS EeePC on the way at affordable prices ($200!!) and more and more services becoming available that would be useful on the go such as mapping and directions, search, twitter, wehanghere and trustedplaces (the list goes on!), i feel that more widely availble internet access would help push mobile device uptake to the next level

There is also the option of local authorities providing city wide wireless as a public service but until councils see a massive benfit for themselves and the populus it would be political suicide with hospitals, schools and more important social schemes desperate for funding. Though it’s not all doom and gloom on that front as Norfolk county council were the first council to provide a large scale wireless infrastructure

It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out over the next few years as mobile phone data rates fall and the introduction of technolgies such as Wi-Max

Hopefully it’ll all be good for us tech-types!

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Andy Parkes

Andy Parkes is Technical Director at Coventry based IT support company IBIT Solutions. Formerly, coordinator of AMITPRO and Microsoft Partner Area Lead for 2012-2013. He also isn't a fan of describing himself in the third person.

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