Travel Guides

How to find places with free wi-fi

By Dominic Welling

dominicwelling@consumerchoices.co.uk

Accessing the internet abroad can be essential for some and is often useful for most, so it’s worth thinking about how you will connect abroad.

Here are your options:

• Internet café

For light users, an internet café is perfect. Just pop in and pay a straight-forward fee to use the internet for a set amount of time - no hidden costs and no bills on your return to the UK.

Most tourist areas have plenty of internet cafés to choose from, and while it’s worth comparing a couple for price differences, they are rarely that expensive.

If you want to plan ahead visit Cybercafes: www.cybercafes.com, which gives you access to a database of 4,208 internet cafes in over 140 countries.

• Wireless hotspots

If you are taking your own laptop on holiday then you will probably be able to connect to a wireless “hotspot” abroad. Once you have found a hotspot, simply enable the laptop’s wireless capability, scan for available networks, find the one you want and click connect.

If you are lucky, this could be free (for example in McDonald’s) but more likely you will have to make an online payment to use the service.

You can search for public access wi-fi hotspots abroad at WiFiFreespot: www.wififreespot.com.

According to the website, as of January this year, Google is supporting free wi-fi in 54 airports and on every Virgin America flight.

• 3G Dongles

Dongles are the most common type of mobile broadband modem.

They use the 3G mobile phone network to connect to the internet wirelessly and once the dongle is plugged into your laptop’s USB port, you’re ready to get online, wherever you are.

While they are becoming more and more popular in the UK, using a dongle to surf and download abroad is expensive.

Most 3G packages cost a fortune to use overseas and there have been plenty of horror stories of consumers returning from their holidays to receive bills for thousands of pounds for their internet use abroad.

Unless you have a package specifically designed for use abroad, you’ll have to pay high roaming fees for every MB downloaded abroad.

New rules

As of 1 July 2010, greater protection to prevent mobile phone and computer users from running up large data bills when overseas came into force across the EU.

The new rules mean that you will be automatically cut off when your monthly bill for using the internet abroad reaches €50 (around £41 or $61).

You will also receive a warning when you have used 80% of this limit or alternatively you can set your own monthly cut-off point by contacting your provider.

Top tips:

Most mobile broadband providers offer roaming bundles that can cut the cost of going online in Europe.

Contact your supplier to see what’s available, but remember, once you've used your bundle allowance, charges could revert back to the much higher, standard fees.

Also, in the case of dongles, be aware that overseas costs will not only vary by provider, but will also depend on what part of the world you’re visiting. Make sure you check the cost with your provider before you go.

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