Arriving here in Nuremberg for the Embedded World shindig I get to the hotel and check out (as you do these days) the data connections.
Dear old Vodafone has bagged up the in-room wireless connectivity at the Hotel Wohrdersee Mercure and wants 5.95 Euros for 30 minutes, 12.95 for two hours and 29.95 for 24 hours.
Looking to avoid the Newbury knock-off, I phone the front desk who inform me they have a little scheme of their own which can give me WiFi from 6pm to 9am for 11.95.
Who on earth wants WiFi during the hours reserved for Pils-beer drinking, Schweinenhaxe-guzzling, not to mention sleeping?
Whatever it is that I’ll be doing between 6pm and 9am it won’t involve a WiFi connection.
They know how to charge in this City. On top of a room rate of €295, they want €15 for breakfast, and there's no CNN, indeed no English-speaking channel at all, on the telly.
It’s all a bit of a trial.
In these situations, I console myself with the thought that once connected, I can use a VoIP phone to call home and bypass the totally extortionate hotel switchboard and the slightly less extortionate roaming charges.
Very wise Peter. It's amazing to my mind when, faced with growing public service WiFi, and the prospect of WIMAX, certain people like BT and Vodafone insist on committing suicide by charging extortionately for WiFi. Their greed will come back to kick them in the teeth. We only use them when we have no choice.