By Sherwin Loh
Digital Life Reporter
sherwin@sph.com.sg

 

MY WIFE calls it a sickness and she hates how it can take control of me, but I never realised I was stricken with it until two weeks ago.

Well, it was two weeks ago that I saw the symptoms but I reckon it's been in me for quite a while. The diagnosis is that I have this urge to go online wherever I am and if I don't, I turn cranky.

The cure? Well, short of a sharp blow to the head, or a lack of connectivity, it's an ailment that will forever plague me.

There we were, at Changi Airport at 5am waiting to catch out flight to Orlando, Florida and what do I do when I see a free computer terminal? I immediately log on to check my e-mail, despite having checked it an hour ago before leaving the house.

Upon landing at Tokyo, Narita International Airport, while other passengers were scrambling to the toilets, I rushed to the Internet area and grabbed myself a booth and started connecting my laptop. A quick check showed that unlike Singapore, wi-fi connectivity at Narita is not free.

While some would have gladly forked out the dough, I'm glad to report that my penny pinching ways prevailed. But rather than give-up, I started to log on to each available connection, to see what was available and believe it or not, I found a free connection.

For those traveling to Japan, click on the ANA connection. The web page that pops up is in Japanese but once you click on Agree, it's surf time as the unadvertised Wi-Fi service actually provides transit passengers with a free connection.

The next stop was Chicago's O'Hare and my experience with American Wi-Fi services is that more often than not, it's a paid service. The same goes for my final stop at Orlando International Airport, but that is fine because hotels should have it for free.

Well, not quite true. It really depends on the type of hotel you choose to stay in.

The US$60 a night place I stayed for the first two nights provided a wired hook up for free, but the US$217 hotel I was in subsequently required an additional US$14.95 a day to stay connected.

Again, the freeloader in me prevailed and I was without an Internet connection for most of the time while in the room. Of course, the conference I was attending provided free Wi-Fi at the conference area, which was a five minute walk from my room.

I figured I took about a dozen five-minute walks each day, on top of attending the conference itself.

Yes, it is ironic is that the more expensive lodging cum conference centre had services that pale in comparison to the budget hotel. Go figure.

On the way back, the stop-over was in Hong Kong and luckily, the airport there provided not only free Wi-Fi, but docking stations to charge laptops as well. That's definitely a boon for those with a four-hour layover.

But of course, the moment I landed in Changi, I didn't even bother with the free Wireless@SG service. I went home and immediately turned on the computer, without bothering to unpack, much to the chagrin of my wife.

But hey, in sickness and in health right?