In uk.transport.london Steve Terry wrote:
Sorry i don't mean on the underground, i was thinking of all the coffee
shops and pubs a couple of years ago i was able to use completely free
until the big networks frightened them with stories of abuse
and sold them their secure systems.

Yup, and it's fragmented such that you need three subscriptions not one.
And PAYG is silly because it's often 5 pounds an hour, while with 3G I can
get 5 pounds a month or 50p/day. And no faffing about with signups,
registering, etc, it just works.

Wifi is just a waste of time when travelling IME, 3G is far more useful.
But sadly, due to hardware manufacturers having a US view of the world (wifi
networks that actually work, poor 3G coverage and broken mobile tariffs), it
isn't common fit on laptops and many tablets.

3G is no use on the tube, of course. But I'm not convinced that people are
going to pay a wifi-scale fee (5 pounds an hour, 10-15 pounds a month) for
the 5 minutes a day they spend lurking on a station platform.

Theo