Wi-Fi hotspots via text

The service works in the UK and highlights BT's own hotspots rather than ALL hotspots in the area. However, it's probably one of the easiest tools the INQ has come across. Contrast this with Vodafone's Mobile Connect offering where you have to enter the city you wish to search. It won't accept a district such as Paddington as a city so you have to put in London and then search through every single hotel in its list.

Back with OpenZones, though, and all you need to do is text a postcode to 81041 and it sends you the three nearest hotspots. Its database is slightly flakey since one of the named hotspots - a pub - hasn't been called the Friend & Firkin for about two years. Never mind, the venue hasn't moved.

Clark was speaking at a WLAN guru luncheon hosted by PR guru, Julian Tanner (see INQ passim). The hottest topic was “How much should hotels charge for Wi-Fi access?” Should it be built into the room charge just like hot water? Or should you expect to pay a premium for the facility just like the Coke in the mini bar?

The other clear message from the luncheon was to corporates. “Deploy Wi-Fi or your employees will do it for you,” claimed Anurag Lal from service provider, iPass.

He claimed that one Boston based bank called in iPass after resisting installing Wi-Fi through lack of a clear ROI. When iPass arrived there were no fewer than 28 ‘rogue' access points on one dealing floor alone. µ