COMMENT Written from Mill Valley, California, on free Wi-Fi
The last time I wrote about Wi-Fi I got heated email from many in the EU still labouring under the misconception that IT, networks and access could be controlled. I also got puzzled emails from those in the US who couldn't comprehend what the problem was!
Well this year's summer trip saw me working up in Boulder, Colorado, and down in San Francisco. So what's the big deal? I decided to drive the whole way across mountain, plain and desert.
Over the past five years I have increasingly become accustomed to picking up Wi-Fi connections (of greater and greater bandwidth) for free. What I had not anticipated on this trip was the near universal availability in the most remote of locations. The scenic drive included towns such as: Granby, Kremmling, Silverthorne, Vail, Glenwood, Rifle, Mesa, Grand Mesa, Cedaredge, Orchard City, Delta, Montrose, Colona, Ouray, Silverton, Hermosa, Durango, Cortez, Kayenta, Cow Springs, Tonalea, Cameron, Red Lake, Williams, Kingman, Topok, Needles, Ludlow, Barstowe, Hinkley, Four Corners, Mojave, Edison, Bakersfield, Fresno, Fairmead, Gilroy, San Jose, San Francisco, Sausalito, Mill Valley... plus many more.
What surprised me most as I drove this scenic route was the number of camping and RV parks, plus hotels and B&B establishments all advertising that they provided free Wi-Fi. But the point was really driven home when I arrived in Durango, Colorado, late one night without having made a hotel booking.
I started in the centre of town and went hotel to hotel. All were offering free Wi-Fi but all had been sold out by about 19.00, and it was 21.30. I progressively widened my search going further and further afield but still no luck. Then I had a flash of inspiration. I approached the first hotel I could find not offering Wi-Fi. Bingo - it was only half full, and it never filled all night! This really was the power of Wi-Fi at work.
After an early breakfast the next morning I drove into Durango, parked up in front of one of the biggest hotels, picked up a Wi-Fi connection for free and completed my emails in about an hour. Did anyone object, did the log-on procedure try to dissuade me or was the WEP turned on? No! I was being actively encouraged to use the service, and why not come in for coffee too?
About 10 hours and quite a bit of sightseeing later, I was in a small hotel in Kayenta on Black Mesa in northern Arizona. This really was in the middle of nowhere but there was free Wi-Fi available. And so my journey proceeded across mountain, mesa and desert. Every town and stop had free Wi-Fi advertised or available if you cared to search it out. However, the same could not be said for the mobile phone service, which was often missing altogether, or severely lacking in terms of signal level and quality of connection. So free VoIP and Wi-Fi came to the rescue.
I suppose the real highlight came when I arrived in San Francisco to find four free Wi-Fi services in Union Square alone. This was surpassed as I walked down a street to find a street vendor of sandwiches advertising free Wi-Fi too. I was so amused I took a couple of photographs...
The cost of Wi-Fi provision in the US and EU is less than the cost of a electric lighting, water, gas, or any other service. So why charge for it? I now select EU hotels on the basis of free Wi-Fi/LAN access. In the US, as ever, it seems they got that message about three years earlier and it has become a real business driver.
Comments
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1. JL
There is a distinct culture of selfishness in the UK; at least as far as wireless internet access goes. People seem to regard bandwidth as their own to be hoarded and not shared. My friends cannot understand why I haven't encrypted my wireless broadband connection. But for most of the time I'm not using all the bandwidth available so isn't it just selfish if I stop others using something that I have no use for? I also remember being horrified at an hotel I was staying in charging £15/day to use the internet service. Given the cost of providing the service it must make plenty of money from those who use it but made no money at all from me as I refuse to be willingly robbed.
2. Simon
I can see where Peter is coming from, but he still seems to labour the idea of a free lunch ! These services are not free, just as the soap etc provided in the hotel room is not really free - it is paid for somehow, the difference is that it seems the places he talks about have figured that they can use it as a marketing tool.
The hotels havn't done it out of a sense of public spirit, they are doing it because (correctly it seems) they can use it as a differentiator from those that don't. The sandwich vendor is obviously doing it because he believes that he will make more from selling a few extra sandwiches than it costs to provide the service.
I don't have a problem with allowing people to use any spare capacity on my networks (though I don't at present control any with wireless), but only as long as those using it respect the other side of the 'social contract' involved - ie that they don't abuse it. Since there are regular stories of people abusing other peoples networks, I very much doubt if I could realistically allow totally unfettered and unrestricted use of any network - I would want to put in place sufficient safeguards that I would not find myself having to 'take the blame' for something unpleasant having been done via my network, and also put in place measures to ensure that I did not find my own use of the network compromised by public use. So for me the question would not be "do I do it", but "does the cost/effort of protecting myself and my network justify doing it" ?
3. Knut Boehnert
Besides the cost and how to pay for it there are two fundamental schools of thought in place.
In the US the thought (beside getting business) is trust the user to behave responsibly and therefore allow unrestricted access.
In Europe there is the thought that nobody can be trusted unless proven otherwise and therefore not to allow unrestricted access.
It comes I think from different historical outsets - the US with seemingly unlimited opportunities and ground still to cover against Europe, densely populated, lots of countries in the same comparable size of territory with a history of attacking each other.
Risk aversion is more useful for a European than for an American. Maybe in another generation we come to a different point of view as Europeans and make the world a better place.
4. Keith G
The trouble is that over here the fear of people abusing "free access" has led to prosecution of at least one drive-by wi-fi user who simply made use of the the open bandwidth (and did not damage the network at all - despite the misleading headline - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4721723.stm)
What would Peter's view be if he got prosecuted for accessing a neighbour's open wi-fi network in the UK?
5. David
Having just returned from a visit to Padstow, I would like to comment on the lack of availability of any form of wireless communications in parts of the UK. Despite being thought of as Cornwall's answer to Kensington, the only GSM coverage in much of the town was from Orange, and while BT have an OpenZone conveniently located in the tourist information centre, there was nowhere to put a laptop down; the kind advice from the centre was to sit on the wall outside. The only way of getting internet access where it was possible to read a laptop screen was through a GPRS connection that was available in the quayside car park!
6. Joe Whitehead
Imagine if you will, that instead of using a wireless connection to access the Internet, you were instead using it to connect MULTIPLE wireless networks spread out over an area. This would be like a 2nd backbone.
7. fab
The definition of ubiquitous is "Being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time; omnipresent". This is precisly what Wi-Fi is not in your trip description, if you have to look for it and find coverage with flashes of inspiration.
8. anonymous
I am trying to find out if anyone knows or if there is a website I can go to that will tell me WiMax locations in Texas cities.
9. anonymous
From a silver surfer in UK - try:-
http://www.2b-safe.org/TX.html
10. anonymous
Just like Peter I travel a lot and work in "communications".
The States is great because you expecte broadband an coffee for free :) - which in turns means lots of free (Skype) wideband calls back home while guzzling good coffee.
But on business trips in the EU I get hammered with attempts to charge me around 15 euros per night for broadband, supplied by incumbent telcos who did the installation.
11. Jim Price
Just in the last week or so, I have noticed at least five pubs in the Coventry/Kenilworth area advertising free (presumeably wireless) internet access. Is this the thin end of a very welcome wedge?
12. Nick Price
I have a Wi-Fi network, I have the bandwidth, why don't I open my network to anyone who cares to park outside? My ISP gives me one 'public' IP address, shared by all users of my network. What happens if some 'drive-by' performs some mischief via 'my' (for the time being) IP address??
13. Chris Brooks
As I'm in Padstow next week and was also contemplating accessing my e-mails via my wireless laptop, I'd be interested to know whether you had any positive feedback to your comment in July?