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Getting Connected
to the Net Overseas
Admittedly, I am writing this from the seat of my pants, since I have
limited experience in dealing with global IPs. Yes, I can get myself
connected in most any Wi-Fi hotspot in the world and can plug into or
go wireless in any hotel. But the notion of global wireless is a new,
untested concept. In short, I’ll be updating this post frequently.
Foreign Dialup Services
 Many of the younger visitors to this Web site probably have never
experienced pre “solid-state” television. Back in the days when TV
sets were black and white and they housed a forest of vacuum tubes,
they took forever to
“warm up” and produce a picture. When “solid state" electronics came
along and vacuum tubes went the way of the crystal set, TVs became an
“instant on” phenomena.
I
mention this only because being forced to wait several minutes for a TV set to warm up
is the equivalent of screwing around with dialup Internet service.
Once you’ve experienced the “instant on” speed of cable or TI
broadband services, it’s impossible to go back to dialup.
And yet, much of what is available on the global Internet market is
dialup.
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For
example,
MyTravelAccess is a
dial-up Internet service that you can use just about anywhere in the
world without a new monthly bill. You simply pay as you go, and are
charged only for the connection time you use.
You
will receive unfiltered, unrestricted access to the Internet so you
can access your online broker and trade to your heart’s content.
Slowly. Ooooh so slowly.
MyTravelAccess.com also offers a free web accelerator that they say compresses
the text and graphics before they're sent to you over your dialup
connection using a unique technology.
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This reduces the amount of data sent, and provides a "much faster"
surfing experience. But still, it’s no broadband.
And there’s a fly in the ointment. Not only will I be trading
online, but also I’ll be uploading those huge video files for my blog and that
would take forever and a day to upload on a dialup line.
"Pardon me, can I use you telephone for a few hours?"
Moreover, I’ve got a question for all you providers of overseas dialup services: While
I'm traipsing around the world, where the hell am I going to get a
phone line to connect to your dialup? I've asked that very same
question to these providers and have never gotten a return
email.
I mean,
it’s
not like I can knock on just any old door along the
Rue De Castiglione
in Paris and say,
"Hey, I need to get on the Internet. Do you mind if I borrow your
phone line for a while? And incidentally, while I’m plugged in your
phone won’t work so you might miss a few calls. I'm sure you'd get
a response akin to
"Va te faire foutre!"(politely, that means, "Kiss
my ass.")
Need Greater Variety?
Well, there are other ways to "get connected," but they're pretty pricey.
Global Dialer, for
example, wants you to cough up 24-cents a minute if you want to
connect along their expansive route, which includes 150 countries
with dialup, tollfree, Wi-Fi. Hotel, Airport, and other
coverage.
I’ll do the math for you. That’s $14.40 a hour. So if you spend, say,
3 hours on the net scoping out a nice buy you’ll pay more than 40
bucks. And if you can’t get a local dialup number, they’ll gladly
share their toll-free number except it ain’t toll-free, it cost
another 20-cents a minute.
As you can see, you CAN get connected to the Internet most anywhere,
but it will cost you. So being a thinking person, you ask, if Verizon
and other U.S. carriers
can make wireless broadband happen most anywhere stateside for $80 a
month or less., why
can't that be done most anywhere in the world?
Well, as I see, it can be done. It just hasn't happened
competitively yet---so far
as I can determine. But, hope springs eternal, and when a wireless
provider alerts me that they're now providing such a service, I'll be
sure and pass that info along.
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