Laptops with built-in wifi are great. Shopping on-line, updating your Facebook status or just checking email from the comfort of your own laptop, even when you’re away from home at a café or airport, is very convenient.
Unfortunately, many wifi hotspots tend to be horrifically overpriced when compared to using a PC in an internet cafe. 90 minutes of access at a BT Openzone hotspot will cost £5.88. 60 minutes of access at a T-Mobile hotspot costs £5. By comparison, an independent London internet café charges just £1.50 an hour when you use one of their PCs.
Does running a wireless network really cost four times more than running a wired one? I doubt it. It seems nonsensical to be charged more to access the internet when you’re providing your own computer.
Hotspot providers probably think that most of their customers are ThinkPad-toting businessmen traveling on expense accounts or Vaio-carrying brats with trust funds, so they can get away with charging such silly prices. However, the increasing popularity of netbooks and wifi-equipped smartphones surely means that lots of normal people want to use those hotspots. Given the current economic climate, they probably won’t want to when faced with a price gouging.
There are numerous websites, such as www.free-hotspot.com, which help you find wireless hotspots which don’t charge a penny. Unfortunately, they’re not much use when you’re actually out and about trying to find a hotspot.
What a stupid Catch-22 situation.
Alan Lu
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