Even in the places that I expect to see wifi, I certainly don’t expect it to be free.
No, it’s a rarity in my experience. I expect to see many locked wifi networks.
“I have unlimited data” only works so far as you actually have data. I am temporarily on T Mobile and I found a place that has zero data coverage (the Oregon coast).
On a short route bus, I don’t. If we’ll be traveling an hour or more, then yes.
I wouldn’t say it’s a “given” much of anywhere. But if you sell fast food or coffee, and you don’t have wifi, I’m likely to choose the spot that does.
I am on month 10 of the Google-voice-only experiment, and I’ve got to say, there’s only been one occasion when I really needed to make a call and couldn’t. There have been maybe three times when I was driving and needed the satnav to update and it didn’t. Those were far more annoying.
So yeah, I definitely notice when wifi is not provided. But I don’t assume it will be.
Security best practices say don’t connect to some random wi-fi & don’t connect to an open, non-secured (passworded) wifi.
If I am not certain a place has wifi, I can’t be sure when I see a wifi with <store name> if it’s theirs or a nogoodnick who has setup a hotspot to gather everybody’s traffic/signins/passwords/credit card info.
Besides, many of those places I’m not in long enough to use that much data that it even pays to be on wifi. Wawa, a 750+ store regional convenience store chain, kind of like, but better than 7-Eleven has it but how long are you really waiting there between while they custom make your sam’ich/flatbread/soup/drink? Especially since they don’t have seating so you’re in & out relatively quickly. At the supermarket, how much data are you using looking up something quickly? Again, not worth it. Even when I eat in a fast food place, I’m only in there a few mins that I can be looking at my phone so, again, not using much data & don’t care.
Intercity (Bolt, Megabus) & charter buses have it; don’t think regional commuter buses need it as much.
I only really expect it if they have a sign up about wifi or free wifi, if they don’t have it not a big deal - i have a smart phone with internet access. I also don’t worry about entertainment, I don’t believe in streaming onto my phone, I have around 250 books and 300 or so MP3s on the data storage chip in my phone, around 2000 books and something like 5000ish MP3s and 4 movies on my tablet. I have a wallwart and 10 foot charging cord in my messenger bag along with a set of headphones [I dislike being impolite enough to force my entertainment on others] and a single paper book in case I need to not run out of charge on my tablet or phone. I am in the market for a recharger/battery pack or something like that that will go nicely into my messenger bag.
My wife and I went on a Mediterranean cruise in October so I have some recent experience on tour buses/shuttles. I’d say about a third of the buses we rode on had free (crappy) wifi. So I wouldn’t expect it, but I wouldn’t be particularly surprised either.
“Expect” is the wrong word for me but rather “hope there is” wifi. If I’m using my eye phone and in Canada it doesn’t matter for me as I’ve got data but when we travel to the US we don’t use data and have to rely on available wifi. Shopping usually means me sitting and waiting while my wife scours the stores so in those cases if the mall has wifi that passes the time nicely.
The other day I stopped at Sheetz for gas. While the gas was pumping, I took out my phone. It had hooked up to Sheetz WiFi, so I quickly updated my apps.
I paid at the pump, but decided to grab a sandwhich for lunch. There was a line for the order kiosks, so I placed an online order and my food was ready before I’d have gotten a kiosk.
I don’t think someone should expect public places to just have wifi. It comes at a cost and getting wifi on a bus would be a pleasant surprise, particularly if I were somewhere vacationing.
And yeah, as noted upthread, that can also be a security risk, so I’d hesitate to use it. Unless you’re out of the country, just use data instead.
I love this. I have a friend that owns a bar. I’m going to suggest he change his wifi to this. Lol
Some public places, yes (coffee shops, libraries, museums, airports), but I certainly wouldn’t expect it on a tour bus (nor, in my experience, does the wifi usually work well on buses even when it theoretically exists).
OP: Are you essentially asking whether it’s common and reasonable to expect near-ubiquitous Wi-Fi? I’d say it is, especially if you’re traveling overseas with a locked phone.
I expect Wi-Fi anywhere people are bored. So yeah: airports, hotels, buses, planes, cruise ships, cafes, etc. And people may not be using these hotspots in quite the way the OP anticipates.
“Where is the nearest decent WiFi?” becomes a pressing question when you have an acute need for bandwidth beyond what your phone can deliver. For example, if you’re out of the office and joining a teleconference, you need a decent Wi-Fi connection so you can see and hear what’s being presented.
More specifically: many inter-city buses in the US have Wi-Fi these days. The few times I’ve used Wi-Fi on a bus, it was exceedingly slow, but fine for messaging. If these young women were American, they may never have ridden an inter-city bus without Wi-Fi. If the tour bus looked vaguely like a modern intercity bus, then I can see why they might have hoped for WiFi access. That said, I’d be surprised to find Wi-FI on a tour bus.
Conversely, if they were seasoned travelers, they may have expected Wi-Fi after visiting someplace like South America, where high-end bus travel is a thing. European inter-city buses tend to be much nicer than the Greyhound buses many Americans picture.
Not in the US, but in other countries - it’s often both common and very appreciated. It is very helpful to be able to be able to use wifi to ensure that you’re on the right bus, getting off at the right stop, and that the tourist attraction you hoped to visit is where you thought it would be - especially if you don’t speak the language.
I never expect to connect (wifi isn’t ubiquitous and I’m not constantly checking), but it’s always useful when I can. So, while I don’t want to connect during the eulogy, it is nice to be able to pull up the email that gives the address and directions to the post-service gathering after the service is over.
I have finite data. As do most of my neighbors.
So, I am a WI-FI whore. As I pass down restaurant row, I am connected to all their WI-FI’s. And the cantinas. Never without WI-FI.
If you were home that morning & going to be home that night, could you have waited to update until you were home again that night or did you do it because you were bored for 4 mins? There’s very few updates that require being installed right away.
How much data would you have used if you hadn’t connected to their wifi? It’s not like you used it to stream three movies. Probably not even a blip on a tiered plan.
I might suggest turning off auto connect. Unless it connected because you manually did that to the same wifi before.
I manually connected at some point (the first use) and connect automatically with all future occurrences. Next month when we’re in St Martin, my phone will automatically connect at those locations where I’ve used WiFi previous years.
I was bored, and it gave me a feeling of efficiency.
Yep, not a blip, but it made me happy doing it with WiFi.
One reason I love Public WiFi is the way I have my phone plan set up. My group plan includes me, my gf, my son in Florida, and my daughter in northwestern Pennsylvania. I have limited data and some months I get close to my limit. I have no control over anyone’s data usage but mine, so I try to use as little as I can. It has become a game.
I consider things on a scale from Public (in the sense of a government run facility) to Private (in the sense of privately O&O) as well as the number and type of people passing thru those facilities.
I would expect free WiFi at many Public places. Esp. with places with large numbers of people passing thru while traveling (and therefore aren’t within easy reach of their own home/business). Public airports are such an example. Hotels and such are Private places that have a similar clientèle.
Little rinky-dink Private businesses serving few customers who generally are coming/going to their own homes/businesses and such are ones I don’t expect it from.
Larger Private places where it’s common for people to connect to the Internet to transact business with that company it is a must. E.g., our grocery store has digital deals you only easily find out about while shopping there. (Trying to find interesting ones out of the thousands listed online ahead of time is a nightmare.) So you use their app to take the deal while shopping. Therefore I’d expect to use their WiFi.
Another factor is cost and complexity. Providing WiFi on a mobile transport like a bus or airplane isn’t so simple to do. So if they don’t provide it or charge a reasonable fee, I’m okay with that. (Unfortunately the concept of “reasonable fee” is alien to a lot of businesses.)
It can be, especially if you’re not a triple-diamond-frequent-cruiser who gets lots of freebies. On a cruise with my mom, I think it cost me $99 for 100 minutes. So I would compose emails in Word, then cut-n-paste and send. But I saw one woman hunt and peck her way thru a $13 email!
It was satellite internet, so really slow, especially during peak hours. I’d wait till late or maybe sunrise.
Somebody please explain this to my grocery store. It’s basically a Faraday cage, so as soon as i go in, I no longer have a signal. But I’m supposed to use their app to get digital coupons, etc. But stores here don’t usually offer WiFi. Starbucks does, and then there are areas where Swisscom (the company which is based on what was the national phone system, so the equivalent of AT&T) offers WiFi, so if you are a Swisscom customer you can connect automatically.
There’s also public WiFi on some trains and in the bigger train stations, you just have to give your information. Anonymous connections are not permitted.