Free WIFI in France - sort of

Free WiFi

oh For some reason or another,  I have deeply and firmly rooted in my head that WiFi is our god given right as humans, just as healthcare, public transport, higher education and (insert your own witty god given right here)

 My views although empathized  by my fellows are not often supported by many
WiFi after all is a service, provided by computer servers and an infrastructure of little boxes and wires and wireless antennas etc. etc.  Someone has to pay for it.

The only wifi that is our god given right i suppose is our ability to speak, and interpretive dance. 
with The way some people use words today,  i would love to see more interpretive dancing used for conveying  information.


STill though. have you ever been in a cafe, or on a bus or maybe just out on the street, with your wireless device trying to quell that itch to get some information that is only a few key strokes away if ONLY you had a wifi connection?

Have you ever then turned on your devices wireless antenna with the faint glimmer of hope that someone around you may have an unlocked channel, or that the Fung Wah Wireless will actually work? (ps- they advertise wifi, but i think it's a farce). Then you see among the list of peoples pet names or there favourite sports teams or various warnings to stay off there channel, one or two possibly three connections with the name Free WIFI.

at first, my heart skipped a beat, could it be?  i try to connect, yes, it connects, the scalloped fan is displayed with ALL of it's bars. but then, as you go to load your webpage, fingers itching with anticipation, nothing.  a message display - you must be connected to the internet blah blah blah.... and your heart sinks, but it's an anticipated sinkage so it's not too bad and you sink back into the opression that is todays information age.

ha ha

Why do "they" tease us like this? how unfair. it's just another bludgeon of reality brought to you by a hopeful glimmer of what could possibly be.

Well here in the socialist cesspool of Paris - there is a way of WiFi sharing that seems appropriate to me. Here in Paris, those free wifi connections actually mean something.

Brace yourself.

so here in paris, if you purchase WiFi  through Orange or SFR,  you then have access to the wifi connection from other peoples homes.  If you are in the street somewhere and you want to get online, you turn on your antenna, scope our the Free WiFi, click, enter a code given to your by your provider and connect.  there even exists an app that plugs the code in for you every time you try to connect.

I am not sure exactly how it works, but my friend, who is allowing me to use his code while i am here explained it in simple terms like this. 90% of the bandwidth coming to your home is off limits to anyone not on your network. 10% is reserved for other provider subscribers who happen to be in the area to tap into.

how nice. it makes sense, no one seems to loose.

having internet access outside of my apartment here in paris has been extremely helpful to me.

I purchased an ATT Ipad knowing that I Was going to be staying in France and that I was going to need cellular service.  Turns out the cellular service is pretty spendy at 6 euro a day, which would have been around 200 euro which is about 260 dollars which isn't horrible but it's nice to get it for free :-0

its good to know people