racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

In my attempt to check out different WiFi hotspots in the metro–after all, what good is an unlimited AirborneAccess account (care of Bayantel DSL) if you can’t surf to your heart’s content?–I realized that there are places that advertise “WiFi zone” but have, in reality, crappy coverage.

AirborneAccess’ hotspot list for Mandaluyong includes Figaro Coffee, but when I tried to log in from there, I could not sustain a signal. I was getting “very low” to nil.

All that after already paying for my cup of Cafe Americano (I needed to plug in and boot up and detect the network, so I thought why not order while booting up)!

So I moved elsewhere, this time not trusting any “WiFi zone” banner or the (empty) assurances of a store/restaurant manager. I proceeded to Nacho-Fast at the lower ground floor, fronting Mercury Drug. I remembered that Dome (beside Nacho-Fast) was listed as an AA hotspot, and I thought I could link up without having to pay anything more expensive than PhP 50 for food or drinks.

Got lucky that the Mexican food joint was offering 50% off on the second purchase of rice bowls, wraps, pizzas or tacos, and treated myself to a snack worth PhP 45 and freeloading on their AC socket for a couple of hours.

At any rate, the entire Shangri-La mall is actually listed as an AA hotspot, so if your gadget’s batteries are good (mine are dead!) it might pay to sniff around for a good signal before settling down somewhere to surf.

Next on my WiFi discussion list: iPig: a personal VPN handy for surfing on those unsecure public hotspots (bad name, but good service).

Bayantel / Sky DSL is giving unlimited Airborne Access WiFi to its subscribers! From the SkyDSL website:

Free
unlimited Wi-Fi access in over 180 hotspots nationwide for only P500.00
one time activation fee (Wi-Fi free until July 24, 2006).

This
is interesting.  While not really free (you have to pay a PhP 500 or
approximately US$9 activation fee for access up to July of 2006), this is cheap enough for fast WiFi with wide
coverage, with AA’s 199–and counting–hotspots around the country (list here).

Similar to news of Google’s planning to setup free WiFi in the San Francisco area (and possible U.S.-wide? DIGG links here),
this is welcome news to WiFi users, especially freelancers and writers
who tend to work at cafes with their laptops.  No longer would users
have to spend PhP 100 (~US$ 2) per hour for prepaid AA Wingspan cards or PhP 950 per month (~US$ 17) per month for an AA Horizon
subscription.  Of course, casual WiFi users may not feel much of
the benefit for now, but this encourages WiFi use among those with
unlimited access–and it’s good for business for the cafe and mall
owners, ain’t it?.

It’s also a great deal considering the cheapest Sky DSL
subscription package goes for only PhP 899.00 (~US$ 16).  That gives you
192Kbps of bandwidth, burstable to 384Kbps.  Not great by western
standards, but here in the Philippines where dial-up is still the most prevalent means to connect, that’s cheap enough for a
broadband connection, even on the low side of the bandwidth spectrum.

(via Pinoy.tech.blog)

From Pinoy.tech.blog: Airborne Access is set to re-launch its service for an annual fee of PhP 1,500 for unlimited WiFi connectivity!

This is an insider info from one of the account executives of
AirborneAccess. They’re re-launching their WiFi service for an annual
subscription service of only Php1,500 a year.

Yup, that’s
Php1,500 for unlimited WiFi access on all their 188 hotspot locations
across the country. Damn right, that’s a big bargain.

Hmm … Interesting.

Question now is speed and latency, with the congestion arising from an upsurge in users.

But if the network can support it, why not?  This may as well be
the ISP and DSL killer.  We’ll all just get to sit at our local Starbucks
sipping coffee while we waste away browsing the Web with our
unlimited WiFi accounts.  Ah, heaven!