if connected

Public WiFi is tricky to find and hotspots always seems to require some different arcane sign-on process. Logging on via a scratch card token or entering credit card details is slow. Every sign-on web UI is different and requires concentration to make sure things work first time. The comprehensive roaming agreements between “networks” that would make this easier have never happened. Even if they had, they wouldn’t cover the numerous one-off free hotspots that still require a web log-in for t&c compliance.

Worse, once connected, WiFi hotspots often block some applications/uses but not others, or deliver poor speeds. But it’s only possible to test this after paying the WiFi connection charge or the indirect charge for the coffee needed to be able to sit in the particular cafe with WiFi. In Europe, that WiFi charge is often greater than an entire month of mobile broadband use.

Mobile broadband is quick to connect to and predictable.

Yesterday, I wanted to check something online fast on my laptop while I joined a conference call. I booted the laptop. I could see a faint BT Openzone WiFi signal but ignored it as I only had one hand free to type my credit card number and I wasn’t sure the signal was strong enough to be reliable. Instead, I hit the connect button on screen and my laptop created a bluetooth connection to the Nokia phone I had and went online. Time to connect was about 20 seconds, no more, and as soon as I was online I knew for sure that email, IM and everything else I needed would work as I’d used this mobile network for Internet access many times before.

WiFi is faster and less battery draining, but for genuinely mobile out-and-about use the convenience of mobile broadband wins.