I’m writing this sitting in the arts centre bar of my local university. I’m here to meet a friend but, being the geek that I am, I thought I’d get here a bit early and use the spare time to do some research online and a bit of content updating. I’ve got a fancy Macbook laptop and a fancy N95 mobile so it seemed like an easy enough thing to do. Instead, it turns out to be a right royal pain.
For starters, although I’m in great big wireless hotspot I’m unable to use the facilities because I’m not a student. Without the requisite username and password I can’t log on. My BT Openzone subscription which normally lets me roam on pretty much any hotspot service is useless here. With the uni blanketed with free wifi for the students and staff there’s no commercial incentive for any other operator to set up a service. Evidentally, it’s not worth the uni’s time to join the likes of The Cloud to allow us working folk to take advantage of the facility our taxes pay for either.
But never mind, I have a second option. Passing my local 3 store the other day I noticed that they have wireless broadband for £10 a month, available on a pay as you go, no contract basis – you just pay for the usb modem gadget. It looked good so I went in to investigate. Whilst in there I had a flash of inspiration remembering that my N95 could be used as a usb 3G modem. So I forked out all of £1.99 for a pay as you go SIM instead. Another £20 to Vodafone saw my N95 unlocked for use on other networks and I was off. Or I would have been if I could figure out how to top up the 3 account. I tried to use a cash machine to do it and discovered I could top up any mobile except 3. I tried to do it through the phone’s browser but was told I’d have to register my credit card 7 days before I wanted to use it. And then I discovered I didn’t have a signal on 3 anyway. So much for that plan.
I resorted to using my Vodafone sim card in the N95. I plugged the phone into my laptop’s usb port and tried to connect. My Mac informed me that my phone didn’t exist. No amount of shouting “It does exist, I can see it right here connected to you!” was going to make any difference.
Option 4: bluetooth connection, via Vodafone N95 to internet. Woo! I’m online! I’m restricted to the speed of a bluetooth connection, I’ve got to keep a close eye on my bandwidth usage and technically I’m breaching Vodafone’s T&Cs by using a computer on a service intended just for mobile browsers but at least I’m online.
Some how this isn’t the kind of ubiquitous wireless broadband that it always seems in the adverts. The ads show a guy with a laptop happily surfing the net wherever he pleases. In reality it seems I need a laptop, hotspot subscription, a couple of sim cards and mobile accounts in order to find at least one that provides 3G, a usb cable and one or more mobile phones. One day we’ll have something which “just works” until then I think I’m going to start carrying a good paperback around with me too – at least I know that will work anywhere and keep me entertained when waiting around for people.