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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

T-Mobile WiFi Isn't

Getting to Heathrow, even from the well-connected location where I live, is a nightmare. Traffic congestion, construction works, police cameras and more make driving profoundly stressful. Checking-in is pretty stressful too, so I tend to leave myself plenty of time (although not as much as the ridiculous recommendations the airlines give at the behest of BAA, which seem to me aimed mainly at increasing shopping).

So I'm at Heathrow with time on my hands. Sitting in the Admiral's Club, there's at last a friendly little sign saying that this is now a T-Mobile HotSpot. Hurrah! It's taken a while but at last it's here too. So it's out with the Powerbook, do the WiFi mating dance and... No luck. Log-in screen is there but it won't let me. I call the help desk (there's a UK number). I am clearly not the first to call in this circumstance. In the US the help-desk would want to know where I was and what equipment I had, but the first question is "have you ever logged in before". Yes, I have an annual account. "Is that a US account?" Yes. "Your account isn't valid here. You need to buy a UK account." Well that sucks. As that costs more than using GPRS as far as I can see, and as I have already paid T-Mobile megabucks, I think I'll pass.

So I'm connected using Vodafone GPRS, and I think T-Mobile WiFi are really missing the point of 'Mobile' if they expect me to buy an account in each country I visit.

posted at 1:31 PM (UK) | |