Roaming Hotspots, Batman!

Roaming Hotspots, Batman!

I didn’t even know that roaming hotspots existed until two days ago, and now I am one!

I need the Internet. Anybody who knows me knows that. I need the Internet more than I need shoes and if the choice was Internet or trousers, I would have to wear some sort of skirt. Every penny that I have earned since 2001 has been earned online, but I was making money online five or six years before that too.

So, when we came back to rural Thailand in August, it was a shock to my system to be without, since the free government Wi-Fi doesn’t penetrate to our house. It used to but not now that I need it. I have spent six weeks chasing hotspots where the signal did reach and they roamed hourly.

Needless to say, I got very little work done, and my income plummeted like a stone. Then I fell ill and for three days and all I could do was stay in bed.

No books, no Internet, nothing to do… it was driving me mad, so my daughter went out to get me something for it – a SIMM for an old dongle I had in a draw. That didn’t work and the lazy sod on the helpline just told us, ‘Modem kaput, bye”.

The next day, my daughter went further afield and came back with a small gizmo I’d never heard of before. It is one of a breed of roaming hotspots. It is rechargeable, cost £40 (but I suspect that that includes travelling expenses), pumps out 65 Megabits and unlimited bandwidth for £2 p/w.

I think that it’s marvellous. A charge lasts about five hours, but during that time, I can sit anywhere I like in Thailand and enjoy as good a service as anyone  – be it on the beach, on a mountain, or in a field of cows. I assume that it will work abroad too, if supplied with a relevant SIMM, however, I will never know, because I have promised the gadget to my daughter when my wife and I return to Spain next month.

I was telling a friend last night about having become a roaming hotspot, and he said, ‘ Welcome to the Twenty-first Century!’

Ironic that, since everyone I mix with considers me their reference book for all things computer-related. Perhaps I need a broader base of friends, but if I were still living here in three months, they would all become roaming hotspots and do away with their current expensive wired or wireless connections.

Please LIKE and SHARE this article using the buttons below and visit our bookshop

All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Roaming Hotspots, Batman!