« Geneva to Paris | Main | Announcing Digital Divide Meetups »
February 27, 2005
Parisian Wi-Fi Lessons
Ever since arriving in Paris yesterday, I've been baffled by the state of wi-fi here. When I checked into my hotel, I found a little wi-fi sign on the counter, which was good news, since I selected the hotel partially because Hotels.com said the place had wireless Internet access. But then I turned on my computer and opened my Web browser, only to discover that the hotel had the nerve of charging 25 euros a day for the privilege. That's more than 30 bucks to us currency-challenged Americans, which is sheer lunacy.
So I briefly sunk into a cyber funk and wondered if I'd be able to tolerate being offline. Of course, the answer was no, so I started to download emails from my cell phone. Granted, I bought the phone for that very purpose, but the download charges while traveling international can be a couple of cents a byte, and that can add up when you get as much email as I do.
This afternoon, though, while I was strolling down Boulevard St-Germain on the way back to my hotel, I noticed a little sign in the window of the local MacDonalds. "WIFI ICI," it said. And below that, in somewhat small print, "gratis." Yep, Ronald McDonald has gotten into the municipal wi-fi business -- at least for a few days. It turns out the free wi-fi is part of a promotion announcing wi-fi at French McDonalds, but it's only free for a short time. Fortunately, I'm only here for a short time as well, so that suits me just fine. So in between touring the sites and soaking up the Parisian joie de vivre, I'll be soaking up the bandwidth at the local Mickey Dee's..... -andy
Posted by acarvin at February 27, 2005 11:24 AM
Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article
