WiFi Archive

I am often asked for good places to work in NYC that offer wifi, power, etc. I am a big fan of the Cosi chain as they offer about a dozen locations around NYC,  free wi-fi, have a good selection of reasonably priced food ($3 breakfast, $6 lunch) and usually have plenty of tables to work at. The one thing I’ve noticed is that a power outlet is hard to come by. Two of the locations I frequent offer no power outlets anywhere near the seating area.

Rick Turoczy who runs the Portland-based Silicon Florist blog has put together a list of the top 10 coffee shops that are perfect for working, coworking and meeting. Rick takes a look at places that are open 24 hours, locations that offer lots of options for food and connections, coffee ratings, and which locations have the best seats.

I’d love to see a worldwide directory with data similar to what Rick has put together for Portland. A coffee shop database directory would allow all of us to find great places to work, meet and eat as we travel to conferences or for vacations. The directory would work well as a mobile app as well with the GPS functions built into many mobile phones today. Coffee shops would be able to list events and it could be a great way for each location to gain more visibility and business. Ideally people could note when they plan to be at a specific location – like a Yelp + Meeup combination.

Back in 2006, I stayed in a hotel in Munich that offered daily Internet access for $79. I took a photo of the information card but can’t seem to locate the photo. I declined the service and used the $10/hr Internet cafe down the block.

It seems today hotel Internet is either free or ranges in price from $10-17/day. Over the past month I’ve stayed in four hotels, two offered free Internet and two charged (one at $14.95/day – the other at $12.95/day).

I had to speak with tech support at each location – at one hotel the connection died, at two others the SMTP (mail) server wouldn’t allow me to send email and at the last the WiFi connection didn’t connect. The support was actually the same company for all four locations (in different cities) and the support personnel noted they were either in Manilla  or Montreal. It was pretty shocking to me that the operator had mail service turned off when the only way to get on the network was to pay using your name and room number combination.

It’s always interesting how the “family” hotels offer free access while the “business” hotels charge. I guess that goes to the idea that people staying in the business hotels have an expense account to charge and won’t moan or bitch.

At the brand new hotel I stayed at in SF, the $15/day got me a very fast connection while the free connection at another hotel was also fast enough to be acceptable. The other two connections (free and $13/day) were piss slow and even basic surfing was nearly impossible for the majority of the stay. The new hotel forced a toolbar and no matter what I did, it kept popping up every other minute.

With all of that said, I am curious to hear thoughts on the following questions:
Continue reading “What Should We Expect With Hotel Internet Connections?” »

Update: We’ve received the following info regarding the briefing tomorrow: The meeting will take place in the Committee of the Whole Room, City Hall, New York, NY on Wednesday, July 30that 11:00 am. This is a public meeting and all are welcome to attend. For further information please contact Kunal Malhotra, Director of Legislation & Budget, 212-788-6975 or Kunal.Malhotra@council.nyc.gov 

Matt Hamblen is reporting that a decision has been made here in NYC not to create a municipal WiFi network. Tomorrow a private consulting firm, Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, will present the results of their feasibility study.

From Computerworld:

While the consultant may offer a concrete plan for broadband in the city, Malhotra said it is already clear to the advisory committee that wireless networks won’t be used. "We’re not going to go the direction of a Minneapolis or Philadelphia in New York," Kunal Malhotra said in a telephone interview today. "We don’t think municipal Wi-Fi will succeed."

Instead the idea would be to take a technology fund that already has $4 million from Verizon and push Time Warner Cable and Cablevision to each put in another $4 million. The idea is to help low-income NYC residents get affordable high-speed Internet access. Malhotra said they weren’t so interested in the type of technology used (wired or wireless) but more importantly getting people access to computer training and job skills.

On a side note, can the wireless carriers please start to provide access on subway platforms? Not in the tunnels – I don’t want 100 people in each car on the phone, but would love some access while waiting for the train. Considering that all stations have some easy path to light, can’t they just drop some repeaters down the chute and flip a switch?!?!

Furthermore, isn’t there a way to leverage the new bus shelters to become WiFi pods? C’mon NYC let’s move forward here!