Blog of a Long Distance Worker Tech

The blog about mobile tech

Tag Archives: data

Making sure you get connected

After the experience of the last few days whilst in France, this article really brings home the need to have a number of options available to you for getting your data connectivity that you need to do your job when travelling.

Starbucks is a digital oasis for me.I usually pop in, fire up the Starbucks mobile card app, order a beverage, have my iPhone scanned to pay for it and then sit down to use the Starbucks WiFi access point (provided by AT&T) on a smartphone, iPad or notebook (or netbook). This plan usually works just fine. And, I’ve executed this plan more times that I would care to admit.

via 0.12Mbps on Starbucks WiFi? Have a Backup Data Access Plan! – SocialTimes.com.

I had options that I could use despite my connectivity problems – the options I had left cost too much ‘just’ for connectivity whilst on vacation so I did not use them and waited until I could get the most cost effective solution working.

My options in order of priority are:

  1. Local SIM with MiFi/3G Router
  2. Local SIM with Android Phone
  3. Low cost WiFi in nearby establishments
  4. Low cost Roaming SIM with Android Phone/Mifi/3G Router
  5. Roaming Data
Make sure when you travel that you have more than one available to you. I finally managed by getting (2) to work with a bit of (3) and (5).

Roaming Cost Reductions

This is encouraging news reported via ZDNet UK, long time supporters of reducing roaming costs.

The European Commission has unveiled its proposals for driving down the cost of mobile voice, text and data roaming for people travelling in Europe.

via EU acts to push down mobile roaming costs | Mobile Working | ZDNet UK.

The figures shown in the article, that the cost of data roaming is a maximum of £0.03 per MB, are very stark compared to data roaming rates that for me are £3 per MB. How many other industries can get away with charging 100x the cost of providing the service. Even allowing for 100% markup, you should be seeing costs of only £0.06 per MB, or a more useful figure… 1GB for £60, at the upper limit of what I would see was acceptable for a roaming data service.

Although encouraging, the retail price caps are really still 10x what they should be for data. With regard to voice calls, many operators already beat these limits – for example I am charged £0.15 per minute plus VAT for making and nothing for receiving whilst roaming.

Still waiting then…

Another Tool in the Travellers Toolbox

You land in a strange outpost with your Smartphone and Laptop, you cannot find any WiFi that costs less than $20 per hour, you dare not turn on roaming data on your phone for the horror of $9 per MB charging, you need to feel close to your home country, you need to be able to find out what is happening at home, you need to make that ‘I’ve landed tweet’, or find out where your Hotel is…. You are stuck. You have to bite the bullet and run up a chunk of charging to your account….

…. or you grab and power up one of the most interesting devices that you can buy today – the Amazon 3G Kindle eBook reader.

What! I hear you say. Why that? It has an extremely interesting feature for the travelling worker – 3G/GPRS Worldwide data service built in, that costs nothing combined with quite an effective web browser hidden away in the Experimental menus. This gives you the capability to do simple web browsing including tweeting, and possibly accessing webmail wherever you are for nothing. You do of course need to buy the Kindle, which will set you back about £150/€160/$200, but there are no transaction costs. Why would Amazon do this? Because of the other more obvious capability of the device – giving you access anywhere to eBook purchasing.

You know you need one…. The books are good too.

Mobile Phone Respite

When travelling, one of the worse things you can have is to have to sit near someone talking on the mobile phone or, worse, noisy SMS conversations – you know those, the ones with a bugle horn on every receive!

Of course, when you get on a plane this all disappears and it is absolute bliss. The same is true of many underground rail services. There is talk though of adding service underground in London and possibly some airlines. I am not alone. In a recently conducted poll, 76 percent Londoners declared that they dont want an underground wireless network for the London Tube.

via Londoners Dont Want Mobile Phones on the Tube | ITProPortal.com.

I do agree that voice calls (and noisy SMS pings) should not sully the majority of modes of travel with the exception that parts of these services could be made into ‘call zones’, the exact opposite of the ‘quiet zones’ we have today on some overland rail lines. This would be the best situation. However, I do want data services on the underground and on aircraft, as I see the need to be in constant data contact whenever I need it. Should it not be the best situation to add WiFi to these travel systems with blocking of voice services? It should be do-able, and for those who still manage to have the noisy phone call then they better well should be in the ‘call zone’ or they can have peer pressure applied :-) .

Tales of ‘Woaming’ …

In some rather interesting timing, I saw that the EC are to look into the cost of data roaming.

The European Commission will soon launch a public consultation into the cost of data roaming, digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes announced on Friday.

via European data roaming consultation looms | ZDNet UK.

I would say interesting timing, because I got caught by the recent bad weather and had to change my normal travel route. I was in Amsterdam and was due to fly back to Gatwick in the UK on Wednesday, however that morning British Airways saw fit to cancel my flight and I was left looking at missing the conference I was on my way to on Thursday. I booked the alternative that I could find that worked – Inter-City Train and Eurostar from Amsterdam via Brussels, Lille and Calais to London.

You have to know that I use an unlocked 3G MiFi to give myself data access in NL through the insertion of a local SIM. I have the same in the UK. In both instances, I have carefully selected the provider particularly in NL, to give myself maximum flexibility. All lovely.

Then I had to make a trip through Belgium and France, countries for which I had not made any arrangements or undertaken any research on how to get a Sim card that is enabled for PAYG data, and to get it provisioned up for the trip. The way I work, only works for when I travel regularly to the particular country – something that I had not done for these ‘new’ countries. So I was basically screwed for any data access, and I did need it. I got off the train a little early in Belgium and needed to confirm where I had to go to and for some reason the signage was not helping me, resulting in the call to the ‘remote access’ Internet – phoning home and doing the info checking talk through with my significant other. The alternative was to pay £3 per MB (O2 UK’s EU Roaming rate), which with the iPhone would have resulted in a bill of about £30-£40 for the query.

It is at this point that roaming data is a real annoyance, and I hope that the EC investigation results in the reduction in roaming rates to something more reasonable, like £0.20 per MB or a fixed price £10 for 500MB. I can only hope. The other thought I have is I need to research all the ways of getting online in the EU, and even further afield (as the US Roaming Data cost is £6 per MB!)

Mobile Broadband Affordability for the Traveller

Interesting news around the Internets today – BBC News – EU moves to prevent ‘shock’ mobile internet bills.

As a mobile worker around Europe, I have to struggle with the most cost effective way of having data access for both smartphone and laptop wherever I am. This mostly consists of finding free or low cost WiFi at whatever accommodation or working location I am in, or negotiating the local pre-paid/pay as you go market for mobile broadband. The big challenge for more mobile data working is the cost of mobile data itself, which is still mostly charged in MB chunks such as £1.50 to £3 per MB. This is pretty much extortion when you see that non-roaming data can be between £2 and £4 per day with acceptable use policies applying, and the average web page or email today can be greater than 1MB in size.

So it is good news that the EU has moved to limit the amount of money you can accidentally spend on mobile broadband so you do not end up with the £2000 bill for a little bit of surfing, but personally I believe that they should be spending their efforts investigating the true cost of providing roaming data and limiting the mobile companies profits in this area, or at least educating them that encouraging data use is a good thing for them to sell more services.

What do you think?

WiFi on Aircraft

800px-Air_travel_as_it_was_-_Heathrow_1960 Recently I had time to ruminate on the availability of WiFi on aircraft. There is much written and said about this in the US, and on the face of it, it seems that this would be a Nirvana of tech. However there is a big issue with it in the short haul flights of Europe, compared to the US.. at least the little hops that are popular say between London and Paris, and London and Amsterdam. The big issue is that out of a 1 hour flight that is common within Europe, you probably only have 20 minutes to actually get your laptop up and running, and then browsing the Internet. In fact, I have seen reports via Twitter of people who have paid for the WiFi literally only to be able to send one or two tweets before the messages comes to shut the electronics down.

advent-4211-msi-wind-mini-laptop-small The big blocker here is that generally your electronics have to be off from the time you enter the departure gate and move to the plane, through to that magic ‘SeatBelts’ light goes out. Then it has to be off from the beginning of the landing procedure to the time you are into the arrival gate. This is by far the longest time of the flight.

This is even true of the slightly longer flight, not quite a real benefit to the commuter traveller. In fact the real benefit is about NOT having technology.

One thing though, the real saver is the smartphone which does not have the start up and shutdown time… for the snatched email and web browse on the ground, but then WiFi is not required for that.