Free internet in hotels

[serfty]

...or, as I saw in late last month was NZD33 per 24 hours + 10¢ for every Mb over an initial 100 during that period.

 

[Evan]

For overseas 3G users who travel in Asia, if you can live with GPRS...

Surf all you want at a maximum charge of $30 per day#!
Good news for the heavy GPRS users! With usage charges capped at a maximum of $30 per day# (based on Singapore's time stamp), you can surf all you want and not worry about escalating bills.
Participating Conexus Mobile Alliance Partners are:

• Hong Kong – Hutchison
• Indonesia – Indosat
• Japan – NTT DoCoMo
• Korea – KTF
• Philippines – Smart
• Taiwan – FarEasTone / KG Telecom

Sort of an option for some people if you only travel to a few Asian countries. Also they have other specials for some countries.

 

[ozimax]

Just about everywhere in the usa has free internet, and many places in Europe. Australia is so far behind the rest of the world in this regard. Free internet should be a given for the regular traveller.

It is surprisingly difficult at times, and sometimes downright frustrating, to access the internet while travelling.

As in many things, Australians get rorted in this. I suppose that's why our corporations are, in general, among the most profitable in the world.

 

[misstam]

Just about everywhere in the usa has free internet, and many places in Europe. Australia is so far behind the rest of the world in this regard. Free internet should be a given for the regular traveller.

It is surprisingly difficult at times, and sometimes downright frustrating, to access the internet while travelling.

As in many things, Australians get rorted in this. I suppose that's why our corporations are, in general, among the most profitable in the world.

Free internet in the US.... hmm... perhaps if you're not in LAX!

I don't get frustrated travelling in Aus anymore - not even the remote regional areas - since I coughed up for wireless Bigpond NextG.
The price seems outragous considering the deals you get for wirless in 'metropolitan' areas... then i think of how much money i save by not having to pay for hotel internet.

 

[NM]

Free internet in the US.... hmm... perhaps if you're not in LAX!

Like I mentioned earlier, I find the more upmarket/expensive the hotel, the less likely to have free internet services. Stay at the cheaper places and its included. This is definitely true in the USA.

 

[misstam]

Like I mentioned earlier, I find the more upmarket/expensive the hotel, the less likely to have free internet services. Stay at the cheaper places and its included. This is definitely true in the USA.

I was just talking about the airport

 

[NM]

I was just talking about the airport

I can use T-Mobile hot spots through our work remote access solution, so airports are not a problem for me. I think we pay something like US$1.95 per day for T-Mobile which is pretty good really. And if I use it in LAX, DFW and MIA all on the same day, its the one charge of US$1.95.

Its the up-market hotels that get you in the USA. On a recent trip, the Holiday Inn provided free wired intrenet. The Hilton Garden Inn was free WiFi and the Intercontinental was US$19.95 per day! Luckily our corporate remote access solution also bypasses some hotel wired and wireless internet services and bill directly at rate more like $1.95 per day when people being billed directly by the hotel for the same connection are paying 10 times that rate. Its a shame there are not more Aussie and Asia hotels on the same plan.

 

[dajop]

I used to stay frequently in hotels in Singapore, and one of the factors in my hotel choice was free internet (which had both in room wired and wireless access as well as lobby/bar access -that worked perfectly). I have also paid $30SGD for wired only access in some hotels which I find a pain (as I personally prefer sitting on the bed than at most hotel desks). What is amusing that the daily charge in many hotels is only marginally less than what I pay for monthly internet access now that I live here. It makes the minibar mark up in many hotels look relatively minor!

As in many things, Australians get rorted in this. I suppose that's why our corporations are, in general, among the most profitable in the world.

Try mobile phones!! The comparison there is unbelievable.

 

[mhen]

Sending this from wired room in Crowne Plaza Christchurch. $33 for 24 hour 100Mb max

Usual pet peeves
Cable not long enough to reach bed
No meter to tell me how much used
Bldy rip-off

Staying 2 nights so didn't sign up until late last night so at least I can get parts of two evenings into the 24 hours!

 

[2muchplastic]

Sending this from a Sofitel Club floor room, free wired and wireless internet.:mrgreen:

One of my permanent travellling companions is a 5m network cable, has been put to use many a time when I want to lie in bed and use my laptop rather than at the desk.

So no peeves from this little traveller!

 

[Flashback]

Sending this from a Sofitel Club floor room, free wired and wireless internet.:mrgreen:

One of my permanent travellling companions is a 5m network cable, has been put to use many a time when I want to lie in bed and use my laptop rather than at the desk.

So no peeves from this little traveller!

Although it may be a touch more expensive, a little travel wireless router will possibly be lighter and take up less space

 

[JohnK]

Was in country Victoria recently and was surprised to find some of the cheaper motels offering free wireless internet. The Comfort Inn in Morwell provided ~1 hour free internet and was restricted in how much was downloaded and Comfort Inn Moe provided 1 hour access and I managed to get ~2 hours use out of it.

Will just drive more and more people to using 3G wireless cards.

I have had 3G wireless for ~6 months now and I would not recommend it to anyone. It is OK using 3G in Sydney but I have had constant issues in Brisbane and it is not uncommon for me to lose connection 10+ times/night. Sometimes I have to reset the USB modem again to be able to get any sort of connection.

I have disabled roaming as the charge is something like $1.15/MB. :shock:

Not interested in free internet when I am overseas as all my trips are now leisure trips and the laptop stays in Australia. No problem finding a cheap internet cafe if I feel a great urge to catch up with civilisation....

 

[NM]

I have had 3G wireless for ~6 months now and I would not recommend it to anyone. It is OK using 3G in Sydney but I have had constant issues in Brisbane and it is not uncommon for me to lose connection 10+ times/night. Sometimes I have to reset the USB modem again to be able to get any sort of connection.

I suggest your problems are not generic to 3G wireless services, but more likely specific to you carrier/ISP. I, and many of my work colleagues, have been using Next-G wireless from many urban and regional locations without the problems you have experienced. My only issue with it is the very high cost the major telcos charge corporates for the service, which is significantly higher than I see advertised from the smaller telcos/ISPs for personal use. Then again, that may be the difference between our experiences.

 

[JohnK]

I suggest your problems are not generic to 3G wireless services, but more likely specific to you carrier/ISP. I, and many of my work colleagues, have been using Next-G wireless from many urban and regional locations without the problems you have experienced.

I have only used 3 Mobile and so far I can safely say that the product offered is simply not good enough even as a beta version. It is clearly not ready. I find it strange that I cannot get constant coverage in Spring Hill. This is the middle of the city not on the outskirts of the supposed coverage area.

I can't even get the Qantas site to load properly. Had no issues loading the Qantas page using Nomad wireless internet in country Victoria.

My only issue with it is the very high cost the major telcos charge corporates for the service, which is significantly higher than I see advertised from the smaller telcos/ISPs for personal use. Then again, that may be the difference between our experiences.

The cheapest Testra 3G plan I could get was $85/month. :shock: I don't need internet access for a few hours a night in my apartment that badly....

 

[2muchplastic]

I have only used 3 Mobile and so far I can safely say that the product offered is simply not good enough even as a beta version. It is clearly not ready. I find it strange that I cannot get constant coverage in Spring Hill. This is the middle of the city not on the outskirts of the supposed coverage area.....

I would agree that 3 Mobile would be the root of your problems. We have a 3 USB dongle and the coverage is worse than poor, it's atrocious. A recent road trip down to Sydney via regional NSW found there was insufficient signal in 95% of the places were passed through to make it anything more than an expensive paperweight.

And as for my wife's 3 mobile samsung phone (going further OT).....don't get me started on that. It was either "roaming" or "no signal" from the moment we exited the southern Gold Coast area to when we arrived in the outskirts of Sydney. And my el cheapo work Telstra Nokia had a signal for 99.99% of the time, the only time it didn't was heading up a 4wd track in a very steep valley.

 

[Dee Thom]

I have just returned from tripping Tassie, western Vic, and up thru Riverina to Hillston, Condobolin, Walget, Lightning Ridge, St George, then back to the Coast. The only areas I couldn't pick up 3G was in the high country of Tassie (ie., Cradle Mt, Lake St Clair) all other areas if I could use my NextG (old CDMA coverage) mobile, I could receive 3G.
Telstra gave me the 3G free, and put me on a $58 per month high usage account (not plan),which I can change on the "net" any time.
Cheers Dee.

 

[munitalP]

Was in country Victoria recently and was surprised to find some of the cheaper motels offering free wireless internet. The Comfort Inn in Morwell provided ~1 hour free internet and was restricted in how much was downloaded and Comfort Inn Moe provided 1 hour access and I managed to get ~2 hours use out of it.


I have had 3G wireless for ~6 months now and I would not recommend it to anyone. It is OK using 3G in Sydney but I have had constant issues in Brisbane and it is not uncommon for me to lose connection 10+ times/night. Sometimes I have to reset the USB modem again to be able to get any sort of connection.

I have disabled roaming as the charge is something like $1.15/MB. :shock:

Not interested in free internet when I am overseas as all my trips are now leisure trips and the laptop stays in Australia. No problem finding a cheap internet cafe if I feel a great urge to catch up with civilisation....

I have had wireless access for many years now - I think it was 2002 I got my first PCMCIA card, it was a telstra CDMA connection, it worked nearly everywhere and speed wise, it was OK.

I changed companies and moved to a 3 PCMCIA card - absolute shocker (also had a 3 phone which wasn't much better) - very little coverage and when outside of a major city, it fell off 3G and onto GSM - slow and expensive... :evil:

After 12 months of 3, I changed to Vodaphone (data and voice), again a PCMCIA card. Vodafone kept me happy for at least 2 years (maybe more) right up until I replaced my laptop - which now had a XPress slot instead of PCMCIA.

I visited Vodafone and told them of my problem - they would fix it for $300 or something like that by selling me a new USD data card. I showed them 1000's of dollars worth of bills from the previous 2 or so years - care factor zero from Vodafone. :shock:

I walked into Telstra next door, bought a new phone (a samsung which was also the fastest 3G modem at the time) and used that as my mobile data connection until October last year when I changed phones (finally folding to the pressure of using Push Emails from our IT department). I was then issued a Telstra Xpress slot 3G card which I can't complain about.

The mobile roaming charges are not that tough (at least I don't think so anyway) and with my phone being continously updated with email, I have found my useage reduce recently.

I couldn't function without the 3G card...

Mr!

:-|

 

[Evan]

I have used the Optus service thought a phone and USB stick for a couple of years now and its been great.
Also in Singapore the starhub service i have is good.

I see Optus now do pre-paid 3g access, how good is that ! great if you visiting from overseas and already have a modem or 3g phone configured as one.

E