Getting short term broadband away from home

toffeecoated

I have to go away for a few days so i booked a Travelodge. They lied about these £19 rooms. I booked three weeks in advance and they wanted £135. Now i see the wi-fi is not included. They want an extra £30 for three days internet use. I only pay £15 a month at home so they can stick that. So my question is how can i get internet for three days on my laptop? I tried a dongle last time but it was so slow i threw it in the canal.

Gordon_Hose

Other than paying for 3 days Wi-Fi at the Travelodge, a dongle is the only way to go. Unless you can go sit in a Wetherspoons, McDonalds or any other place that offers free WiFi.

The only other thing is to pay for BT Openzone vouchers or per-minute access: http://www.btopenzone.com/buy/index.jsp But then you'd need to make sure there is a Hotspot nearby.

macman

You might find this Travelodge is in a better wi-fi, sorry, mobile broadband reception area. So time to go and dredge the canal I guess...

stilltheone

Hmmm...some strange advice on this thread.

First of all, you should have checked as to which mobile broadband service was suitable for the location. If only Network A has coverage, then it's no good buying network B's product.

macman could be right in suggesting that the mobile broadband reception of the network you chose might have better coverage. I think he meant mobile broadband coverage as opposed to WiFi.

I think Travelodge use Spectrum for WiFi, so BT OpenZone is unlikely to be of use. Furthermore at £9.99 for 24 hours, it's hardly better value.

For mobile broadband:

Go to Site Finder, click on the map and pop the relevant Travelodge postcode in the box.
A map should appear, hopefully with some blue triangles.

You'll need to click on each of the blue triangles in turn, reading the details.
What you are looking for are UMTS masts under 'type of transmission' within 500 metres of the place of intended usage and the name of the operator.

The cheapest way to access BT OpenZone/The Cloud is via O2 mobile broadband. HotSpot search here

toffeecoated

Thanks everyone.

geordie458

Can you tether your mobile phone? As long as you,re not kicking the a*s* out of it and downloading loads you may be ok.