February and March are two very busy workshifting months for AJ and myself. We are going
to conferences, meeting with clients, launching a client website and working on a charity project all while trying to keep our company and team productive. We have traveled to the UK every six months for the past two years and have had many experiences with their internet options. So here is what I have discovered. You have three options internet cafes, wifi in cafes or hotels or USB internet broadband cards.
Internet Cafes usually give you decent speeds for up to 2 pounds an hour. This is the only place I have been able to make Skype calls on a consistent basis. However, you have to sit in the same, smelly place for hours. And hour over hour you end of spending a significant amount of money.
Wifi in cafes is extremely unreliable and can be expensive although it is available. In most of my experiences with wifi in hotels I usually end of paying between 10 to 20 pounds per day, which just isn't a realistic option. However McDonalds, of all places, has free wifi that is pretty reliable.
USB broadband cards are your best option for stable internet for email and general work on the internet. You can buy a broadband card from Vodafone for 25 pounds which includes 3 gigs of internet usage. You can also go with T-Mobile, the cost for the card is 20 pounds and you pay 2 pounds each day for 'unlimited' web usage. However, you cannot use Skype with T-Mobile and if you run too many applications at the same times (TweetDeck, Gmail, Facebook, Google Docs) then your bandwidth will be severely limited.
Those are your options, here is what I suggest: Buy a Vodafone broadband card for 25 pounds for general use and if you need to have meetings with your team over Skype go to the internet cafe. Also the UK has automatic content lock on all devices that access the internet so show your ID and ask for the content lock to be removed if you want to use Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube or other social networks.
What are you suggestions for internet connectivity abroad?
Photo Credit: AJ Leon
to conferences, meeting with clients, launching a client website and working on a charity project all while trying to keep our company and team productive. We have traveled to the UK every six months for the past two years and have had many experiences with their internet options. So here is what I have discovered. You have three options internet cafes, wifi in cafes or hotels or USB internet broadband cards. Internet Cafes usually give you decent speeds for up to 2 pounds an hour. This is the only place I have been able to make Skype calls on a consistent basis. However, you have to sit in the same, smelly place for hours. And hour over hour you end of spending a significant amount of money.
Wifi in cafes is extremely unreliable and can be expensive although it is available. In most of my experiences with wifi in hotels I usually end of paying between 10 to 20 pounds per day, which just isn't a realistic option. However McDonalds, of all places, has free wifi that is pretty reliable.
USB broadband cards are your best option for stable internet for email and general work on the internet. You can buy a broadband card from Vodafone for 25 pounds which includes 3 gigs of internet usage. You can also go with T-Mobile, the cost for the card is 20 pounds and you pay 2 pounds each day for 'unlimited' web usage. However, you cannot use Skype with T-Mobile and if you run too many applications at the same times (TweetDeck, Gmail, Facebook, Google Docs) then your bandwidth will be severely limited.
Those are your options, here is what I suggest: Buy a Vodafone broadband card for 25 pounds for general use and if you need to have meetings with your team over Skype go to the internet cafe. Also the UK has automatic content lock on all devices that access the internet so show your ID and ask for the content lock to be removed if you want to use Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube or other social networks.
What are you suggestions for internet connectivity abroad?
Photo Credit: AJ Leon
