Peter Cochrane's Video Blog: Escaping expensive wi-fi

Hi, this is Peter Cochrane for silicon.com, and this morning I'm in Cardiff in South Wales. I just checked out of my hotel a couple of hours early so that I can do my email and get on the internet. And the reason - access through wi-fi in the hotel is a stunning £15 or $30 for any amount of minutes that you want to use up to one day. They used to charge an outrageous £6.70 or around about $13 for access, but they've scrapped that charge presumably because they can't make enough money. So now they are making it really prohibitive. Net result is, I've walked across the road a mere 50 metres and guess what – I've found three free wi-fi access points and this one, which I'm using right now, is in a shopping arcade and is provided by my carrier for my standard £5/month 'eat all you want' service. Sooner or later these European hotels are going to figure out why they are losing so much money and they are really going to get with it!