(Not) Wired For Sound

I went to a HP seminar today about accessing data on the move, and I found out that there are over 10,000 wi-fi spots in the UK already. So I decided to see if there were any wi-fi spots where I work, in Guildford, Surrey. I used the JiFi site, and found that there are 19 spots in the centre of Guildford! This means that you can rock up with your laptop computer, with wireless card, and for a small tariff, access Broadband speed internet or collect emails with no bother at all.

One of the delegates described his experience. He said that McDonald's 'restaurants' have over 500 WiFi sites (here's silicon.com's take on it). Apparently, although it's not advertised, you turn up and buy a scratch card for a nominal fee over the counter. Once you power up your laptop, your card detects the WiFi spot, you enter the code on the scratch card, and you're away; that simple! He said that all the time he's been in McDonald's, there's been nobody else using the service, and he's had access to the full 2mb/second bandwidth .. surely we now have one good reason to go there (apart from the 18 other Guildford sites).