There's a really cool solution to getting
Internet access while traveling called MiFi (pronounced "My-Fi"). It
is a small device that is basically two wireless components in one package: a
wide area wireless cellular modem and a Wi-Fi access point. Verizon Wireless
provided me with a MiFi unit to test a few weeks ago, and I finally had a trip
scheduled in which I could try it out.
My wife and I attended my son Jason's wedding
in Maine (held at the beautiful Retreat at French's Point) and
stayed in the Belfast Bay Inn, a
classy bed and breakfast right in the heart of Belfast, Maine. I set up our three notebook PCs: my Frost &
Sullivan system, my personal system and my wife Alicia's system.
In order to get the MiFi
working, it has to be provisioned by Verizon Wireless (so it was a valid unit
on the network) and then activated (my account was established with Verizon
Wireless PR). With the help of Brenda Rainey in Verizon Wireless PR, the unit
got provisioned to work and then activated as a demo unit.
Normally, the MiFi unit would
require a two-year commitment at $40 for 250MB or $60 per month for 5GB of use.
Obviously, since we carry around three notebook PCs, we would have normally had
to sign up for three wide area wireless modem accounts: one for each notebook
PC or three times $40 to $60 per month (or $120 to $180 per month).
To be sure, many hotels provide
Wi-Fi but in many cases they charge anywhere from $9.95 to $19.95 for 24 hours
of access. Some hotels—most notably Marriott Courtyard and similar mid-tier
hotels that cater to the business traveler—provide free Wi-Fi access. But most
of the time (independent of whether you purchased Wi-Fi access or not) the
hotel requires you to input your hotel room number and then will only allow one
computer to have access to that account number at one time.
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