I’ ve just had a bad experience with Boingo. I wrote that Boingo is a good cheap alternative when you stay Marriott Hotel group (official connection is about $10/day vs about $26/month). I saved a lot of money since I wrote that entry. However, I’m sorry to say it’s getting useless when you’re on the road. Today, I didn’t notice that Boingo stopped to provide access point at UPS store and waste my time there. Then didn’t have a good coverage in town or road from the beginning. Now, that few access point UPS managed to cover is finally gone. This measn there is no access point in downtown or on the road practically unless you can find Barnes&Noble.
It’s still good way to save money when you stay at Marriott or you like Barnes&Noble more than Borders. I think Wi-Fi hotspot doesn’t work for serious use because Starbucks/FedEx/Kinkos signed for T-Mobile exclusively and T-Mobile doesn’t allow roaming service. It practically killed the practical coverage in a real world.
I don’t know what product/technology can change this situation, but I believe iPhone could be the one. Current iPhone’s wireless connectivity isn’t fast enough to replace Wi-Fi (that’s why it has Wi-Fi capability), but I think the next generation of iPhone surely have much faster version of mobile Internet connection. It would be the time everything begins to change.
Anyway, I’m totally disappointed with Boingo and UPS. A lady at UPS store told me that UPS decided to discontinue the service because not much people utilize the service. I almost laughed because there is no desk/chair for computer user at all in most of UPS store! How can you utilize when you are forced to stand to use laptop computer. In FedEx/Kinkos, they have humble desk/chair for computer user (yes, because they have rental computer service and so on and it’s natural/easy to add one or more extra).
From today’s lesson, I bet on FedEx/Kinkos vs UPS because UPS underestimate the importance to attract high-tech savvy customers. It should be tough to regain these customers in the long run.
