McDonald’s & The Cloud – Genius

As I’m doing a lot more travelling around the country (Glasgow one day, Southampton another), it’s become apparent how rubbish Vodafone’s coverage is. Work gave me a Vodafone Mobile Connect card & a work SIM (I chose not to accept the phone, as what use is a 6500 Classic to me?), and as I can’t get a usable Vodafone signal at home – 1mile from the A1 – I’ve only used it for the occasional call to a colleague. Everyone has my personal number, I had to use it for work so got a T-Mobile contract with lots of minutes which I’m nearly half way through. I regrettably stopped the £10 T-Mobile datacard contract, which was excellent. But Vodafone will be as good, won’t it?

No. No, it’s not. Not by half. T-Mobile seems to have 3G & HSDPA coverage *everywhere*, at least everywhere you’d like to go. There’s a mast on the Malthouse just over the road from my house, so when we were without broadband after moving in, it was good enough until BT sorted their arse into gear. Vodafone seems to have some coverage in some places, until you go indoors. I do prefer working inside, especially in an ‘English Summer’. Plus some of my VPNs don’t work, I can’t VNC into home, everything seems to be blocked. I can count on one hand the number of hotel’s I’ve been in where I can actually click ‘Connect’ and get a usable throughput.

So I’ve found myself spending more time in the vacinity of the Golden Arches. I haven’t actually just pitched up in the car-park and got my laptop out, I do go in & buy a drink at least or a meal. Spend £5 in Premier Inn on WiFi, or £5 for a sandwich & drink? It’s not a tough choice. Hotels should also provide free WiFi, or at least an option to roam from any other provider – I’d go out of my way to stay there.