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Wifi recommendations - sick of being robbed blind in hotels

tstaddon
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Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Wifi recommendations - sick of being robbed blind in hotels

Hi,
A number of other ISPs and telcos have some deal with wireless providers which can be rather handy when stuck in hotels charging a stupid fee like £10/day for rubbish wifi.
I just wondered if PN have any recommendations or deals with other providers? At one point I think BT Openzone took Plusnet logins.
Thanks
8 REPLIES 8
adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Wifi recommendations - sick of being robbed blind in hotels

Quote
At one point I think BT Openzone took Plusnet logins.

Yes, we did used to offer wifi connectivity via some Openzone hotsopts in the past but we don't have any deals or plans in the pipeline at present.
Adam
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 Adam Walker
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tstaddon
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Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Wifi recommendations - sick of being robbed blind in hotels

To be honest I really wish you'd reconsider that, even if you only offered it on a slightly more expensive "SOHO" contract. If any ISP partnered up with the big hotel chains like IBIS so I could just log in with my ADSL account and get online, I'd rather it was PlusNet. 
On the home side I've no complaints and nothing but praise for PN but the problem is, I am the one paying for the broadband but I'm not home very much!
I spend >60% of my time on the road and I need to do admin in the evenings - you try doing it on something that's often worse than dialup and paying £10/day for the privilege!
I'm often up till ten o'clock just trying to get it done with the connection dropping every five minutes.
It's got to the point where in some towns I'd rather stay in Bandit Country and get access to wifi that tops dialup speed and doesn't fall over (I ain't joking - I recently had someone trying to sell me a handgun in the car park but on the upside that hotel is the only gaff with wifi that is remotely fit for purpose!) than stop in a Premier Inn (worst. wifi. ever.)
IBIS charges £8.99 for 24 hours of internet access which at least has the benefit of surpassing 128kbits/sec when it works, but I can't justify paying £45/week just for wifi in the evenings. And when it doesn't work I sometimes have to ring a number in FRANCE to get it fixed. 
The other day I coughed up £20 for a month trial of Orange Wifi which is tethered to my work phone contract - I wish I hadn't because it's virtually unusable. This forum page took in excess of 2 minutes to load and because it struggles to even hit the lofty bitrates of 28kbits/sec my VPN to the office keeps dropping. .
And if none of that convinces you it's worth doing...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/9503112/Accor-to-scrap-wifi-charges-at-500-hotels.html
I know some of the IBIS hotels are looking at changing their wifi provider, but the existing provider is still being used at every one I've recently been in. So perhaps there's time for PN to get in on the act.
HairyMcbiker
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Re: Wifi recommendations - sick of being robbed blind in hotels

Have you tried a 3g dongle? I used to use one on holiday (3) and had speeds of ~4Mb in rural situations, and at a monthly cost of £10/1G it is cheaper than wifi/per night.
tstaddon
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Re: Wifi recommendations - sick of being robbed blind in hotels

It's definitely something I'm considering - if I can figure out how to process it in the expenses setup where  I'm at 3-4 different customer sites in any calendar month and some are covering expenses based on invoiced costs.
My point was that the big hotel chains got a right kicking over having the worst broadband facilities and if I were PlusNet I'd think "that must present a business opportunity".
I regularly stay in an independent pub hotel in the back end of nowhere in Lancashire and get >20mbit broadband FREE OF CHARGE in the room (and they're hardly unique) but that's because they've got FTTC. One of the major gripes I have with business travel is that one is pressured into booking into chains rather than small independents, and the big chains outsource their wifi offerings to outfits who seem to build chronically awful, flakey Wireless G setups and then stick paywalls up.
Surely these big hotels would be a lot better off with a multiplexed FTTC offering through a UK-based outfit rather than one where you've got to pay some French provider in euros and phone France if it doesn't work?
rja
Grafter
Posts: 55
Registered: ‎28-01-2013

Re: Wifi recommendations - sick of being robbed blind in hotels

I live out of hotels too. I have an unlocked 3 mifi and use 3 3Gb pre-paid sims. You ou expense them to your customer if you like. There's no contract to deal with. You can get them for about £10 from Amazon.
I find a big problem in hotels is that the building screens out a decent 3G signal. That's where the mifi comes in. I have one of those waterproof cellphone bags with a strap attached. I hang the mifi out of the room window (really!) and generally get a great signal (like now) even when my cell phone struggles.
w23
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Re: Wifi recommendations - sick of being robbed blind in hotels

I use a normal 3G dongle (T-mobile PAYG, cost me £10, unlocking cost a further £3) with a USB extension cable.  Many good SIM deals on 'that auction site' for 'pre-loaded' SIMs as mentioned by others.
Always used to find McDonalds free Wi-fi to be pretty adequate but not used that for a good while so cannot really say how good or bad it is now.
Call me 'w23'
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HairyMcbiker
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Re: Wifi recommendations - sick of being robbed blind in hotels

Sorry yes I meant PAYG not a monthly cost. As has been said you can get payg sims preloaded cheaper than topups.
falesia
Dabbler
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Registered: ‎31-01-2012

Re: Wifi recommendations - sick of being robbed blind in hotels

I sympathise with your problem--I can't help feeling that the big chains are simply trying to plug their finger in a dam that will break soon, and we'll look back on this time of being charged for Wifi in a room you've already paid for, in the same way we do now about when you had to put money in the back of the telly (that's ageing me!)
You've probably already thought of this but Wetherspoons are on the Cloud network, and IME they're quite tolerant of you making one or two drinks last a couple of hours or more if you've got things to do. Another advantage is you don't have to put up with Now That's What I Call Sh*te volume 9786 while you're trying to do your admin.