What cost connection?

Somewhat Frankly, Gruber has blogged about the necessity for very cheap or free connection while traveling.  He's right and his horror stories are rather mild compared to the costs I have recently experienced. My world record was at London's Melia White House that wanted me to pay 10 pound sterling (about $20 USD) for an hour of connected broadband in my room. The concierge didn't seem to know about the Starbuck's one block away that wanted only one pound per hour.  In Italy a 10 euro per hour (about $13.50) was common in hotels.

I marvel at this extortion and that they seem to get away with it. But for Frank and me, these high prices are an inconvenience to travelers. They could stop him or me from blogging for a day or two, or make us trek out of a comfortable room to  join students at Internet cafe who charge lower prices usually for higher connection rates.

I seems to me that if governments see it as their responsibility to build cheap-to-free highways, then they should see a responsibility to provide equally vital connections into the Internet highway.

Being unable to afford connection is a barrier not just in developing nations, but, I was told, to Italians. Even if you can afford it, Belgians told me, it takes more than two months to get connected in your home because monopolistic providers will do it at their convenience not yours. It Ireland, it cost Tom Raftery twice what it cost me per month for connection into the him and his runs at one-fourth the speed I get from my Comcast Cable modem.

This is a Global Neighborhoods barrier.  High cost connections prevents a great deal of people from joining the global neighborhoods of their choices. This is at the core of the Digital Divide. What I think is often overlooked is that the people being locked out by expensive connection are no all penniless Biafrans.

Many are middle class working professionals and students. To companies wishing to sell  goods and services on the Internet they are a great, viable and unreachable market.

Comments

[Marc Orchant]

Shel - Having just returned from Amsterdam, I can say that I've recently paid $4.00 US for 30 minutes access in Dublin, and $40 for 8 hours access in Amsterdam in my hotel - lobby only.

The worst rip I've seen recently though was at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas. $400 for two days or $40 for 30 minutes. Yikes!

[Doug Karr]

Interestingly, I just added one more internet account to the 2 others I have. I have one for working at Starbucks/Borders, one for my PDA phone, and my home internet account. It is ridiculous that someone hasn't come up with a joint package.

The one that really irritates me is my PDA phone. With an adapter, I could utilize my laptop with it. However, the adapter and the service costs more than an additional account! Hence the T-Mobile account for Starbucks.

[Jim Turner]

I'm with Marc. I was recently speaking at an AMA event in Reno. I nonchalantly asked whether their was Wifi in the hotel. The desk clerk looked at me like I was speaking another language. I had to give him a short course on the this thing called the Internet, then he said "oh yeah, Starbucks is on the second floor."

That was not the interesting part of the conversation. I asked whether they had Internet access in the rooms? His response? "I'm not sure we have that yet. Let me ask my supervisor." The supervisor came up, "I'm sorry sir is their a problem with our accomodations?" Perhaps a blog consultant could help the poor souls at Harrah's in Reno! The room? Free. The Internet? Not so free.