When the Hotel Wi-Fi Just Doesn't Cut It

Here I am again in a hotel in the US, the Hilton in San Jose to be exact, and I am glad that I have quad-band 3G stick and the AT&T prepaid SIM with me, as the Wi-Fi/fixed Ethernet connectivity in the hotel just doesn't cut it. Available for 10 dollars extra a day, I just get a meager 150 kbit/s through the line with highly variable delays and packet loss. Even at 3 a.m. (hello jet lag...) the speed is less than 1 MBit/s. No matter how many MBit/s your DSL line is capable of, dear Hilton manager, it's far from enough. We are in Silicon valley, so heavy Internet use should not be surprising!? So I vote with my feet. No money for you for the Internet access, it's gone to AT&T. Not that their 3G network is anywhere close to the best I've seen with the 2 MBit/s I get, but way beyond what comes out of that Ethernet jack in my room. Reminds me a bit of the stick meeting post I wrote some time ago. Let's see how many 3G sticks are used in the meeting today in the US.

Comments

[Bsoft16384]

It wouldn't surprise me if the Hilton was using a T1. Ironically it seems that the more expensive the hotel is, the worse (and more expensive) the Internet connectivity is.

You might consider T-Mobile next time. I consistently see 3.5Mbps+ on my Nexus One and you can get more with an HSPA+ device. Clear (WiMAX) is also another option but their coverage is limited.