Victim of T-Mobile Hotspot

Mystified by my short post yesterday? Blame the Whitehouse Hotel, Kegworth in Derbyshire (where I was staying prior to talking to the East Midlands branch of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors). While a blessed minority of hotels (and other establishments) treat their guests to free wi-fi access, the afore-mentioned hotel thinks its guests will jump at the chance – not! – of paying £5 for an hour’s broadband access, courtesy of T-Mobile (complete, irritatingly, with a German version of Google!). After entering my credit card details, I got online and, after dealing with my emails, had just two or three minutes in which to complete my post.

As I have said before, I reckon that there are many UK businesses that could improve their reputations and tempt more new customers through their doors if they were to offer free wi-fi access. In the US, numerous sandwich bars and coffee-shops, book-sellers and hotels offer free broadband; in the UK, it’s rarer, but I would certainly put Best Western on my list (the Best Western Westminster in nearby Nottingham, for example, has free Wi-fi in the public areas), and I note that the venue of next Tuesday’s NCCTP conference – the SAS Radisson at Portman Square in London also offers free broadband to its residents.

Meanwhile, I note from Silicon.com yet more announcements about 22Mbps and 24Mbps broadband services.