i have started using Boingo Wireless recently and am quite happy with it - can get online at pretty much any TMobile location (i.e. anywhere there's an SBUX) plus lots of hotels and airports
------- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/business/19connect.html Offline Involuntarily Ben Garvin for The New York Times “Wireless is just not reliable yet, and hotels are just catching up to the fact that they’ve got to be on top of this,” said Will Allen III. Article Tools Sponsored By By SUSAN STELLIN Published: December 19, 2006 Five years ago, the main challenge for data-hungry business travelers was finding a hotel that offered high-speed Internet access. Then came a shift to wireless and even free connections. But these days, the top priority for many is simply getting consistent, reliable access to the Internet, regardless of the cost or type of connection. That, it turns out, is not as easy as one might think. Travelers’ complaints about spotty Internet service are varied. Sometimes the wireless signal works in Room 347 but not Room 219; other times the connections are too slow to download large files, do not work with corporate security settings or inexplicably disconnect every few minutes. And when it comes to troubleshooting problems, most hotels direct guests to a toll-free number offered by their Internet service provider, which can be a frustrating exercise in navigating automated menus, waiting on hold or wasting time following instructions that do not provide a fix. “I was on the phone with the 800 number at 11:30 at night, but I never did get connected,” said Charlene Baumbich, an author who had trouble getting online at four out of the five hotels she used during a recent book tour. “I lost sleep when I needed sleep trying to get online.” Mark Lawrence, an engineer who travels two or three times a month with a Macintosh computer, started having problems connecting about six months ago; his Safari browser would crash during the sign-up process. “When this first happened, I was shocked because I had been connecting for a year or so with no problems whatsoever” at various hotels, he said. “I was just beating my head against the wall, trying to connect again and again.” (He finally found a solution by connecting with a Firefox browser instead.) Will Allen III, an organizational development consultant who travels most weeks, attributes growing connectivity problems to the shift to wireless access, estimating that he has trouble with Wi-Fi service in hotels about 50 percent of the time, in contrast to 5 percent of the time with a wired connection. “Wireless is just not reliable yet, and hotels are just catching up to the fact that they’ve got to be on top of this,” he said, noting that he has turned down free upgrades to a room with Wi-Fi in favor of a wired connection in a lesser room. And if he is planning a long- term stay, he and his colleagues will test a hotel’s Internet service in advance. “We can’t stay at a hotel unless the Internet works,” he said. “It’s like oxygen — we have to have it.” The challenge for hotels is that more people are using the Internet for more things these days, not just to check e-mail messages, but to make phone calls, download TV shows and do videoconferencing, all of which require more bandwidth and more tech support when things do not work. Add to the mix the quirks of different operating systems, Web browsers and corporate security settings, not to mention travelers who are not necessarily tech-savvy themselves, and it is no surprise that hotels are struggling to provide reliable service. One problem is that most large hotel chains work with dozens of Internet service providers, some of them small local operations, leading to an inconsistent service experience for guests. Hoping to rein in this chaos, the Hilton Hotels Corporation is in the process of bringing the management and customer support aspects of its Internet service in-house, through a program called Stay Connected @ Hilton. John Flack, vice president for hotel broadband services at Hilton, said the program was aimed at making it easier for guests to be connected by offering a consistent sign-up process, ensuring reliable network performance by upgrading equipment and monitoring demand, and handling problems through a help desk run by Hilton staff members. “We see the need to provide consistent service across all our family of brands,” Mr. Flack said, noting that up to 35 percent of guests use the Internet at Hilton’s full-service hotels, with peaks occurring midweek from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Brian Gullbrants, vice president for operations at Ritz-Carlton, where 10 percent of guests typically go online, said the hotel chain had moved away from relying on a single “technology butler” at each property and now trains most on-site employees to handle basic connectivity questions. “You don’t have to be a tech expert to figure it out, but you have to understand how our system works,” he said, adding that more complicated problems are handled by the hotel’s information technology staff. Larry Dustin, president of the United States hotels group for iBahn, which provides Internet service to more than 2,000 hotels, said one source of frustration is that many hotels are not aware of problems with the quality of their network, especially as travelers’ technology habits evolve. “With bandwidth-intensive applications like video, a relatively few number of guests can drop the speed of the network to dial-up or less,” Mr. Dustin said. Other problems he mentioned are building materials like concrete, steel and glass, which can block wireless signals; an inadequate number of Internet protocol addresses for all guests who need them to connect through their employer’s security software; and not enough antennas to accommodate growing wireless traffic. But travelers say they should not have to worry about which company provides a hotel’s Internet service, and whether it is reliable. “If I’m staying in a Tier 1 hotel, I should expect a Tier 1 experience,” said Andy Abramson, a communications consultant who writes a blog about Internet telephony. “I might be working in my hotel for 12 to 14 hours one day. To me, that hotel is an extension of my office — it’s not just a place to sleep and shower.” That may mean that hotels, and ultimately their guests, have to pay more for better Internet service. Some travelers, especially those putting access fees on expense accounts, say they do not mind paying for reliable service. But as Mr. Allen pointed out: “If you sell it to me, it better work.” --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TELECOM-CITIES Current searchable archives (Feb. 1, 2006 to present) at http://www.mail-archive.com/telecom-cities@forums.nyu.edu/ Old searchble archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/telecom-cities@googlegroups.com/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
