Web Worker Daily

For people who work on the web, getting access to the Internet is vital. If we can’t connect to our colleagues and projects online, we can’t earn a living. However, we can’t always stay attached to our home base and therefore we need a way to stay online while we’re on the go. Let’s give you a breakdown of the options for getting online on the go.

Cellular Options:

Mobile phone operators in the United States have been investing billions into building out their mobile broadband networks. Of the four major mobile carriers, three (Sprint/Nextel, Verizon and AT&T) provide high speed mobile broadband to their customers. The little brother of the bunch, T-Mobile, is still only delivering a slow EDGE network to subscribers but are rumored to be rolling out a 3G network soon.

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If you’re a road warrior or frequent traveler, what strategy do you have for staying connected to the Internet? Odds are you have use combination of Wi-Fi access, a 3G cellular card, and/or dial-up net access as a last resort.

A new service from iPass combines all three of these ways of getting online. After going after the enterprise market, iPass has launched iPassConnect for consumers. According to the company, they are the first to combine 3G data in the US, wired hotel broadband, and a global dial-up network.

Being a part if iPass will allow you to get online at nearly 1,000 hotspots in 500 airports, from hotels such as Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriot, and from retail location such as Starbucks, McDonalds, and more.

To get strted, sign up and at the iPassConnect website. Currently, the service is only available for Windows computer running Vista, XP, or Windows 2000. Pricing starts out at $29.95/month.

We’ve all been tempted to do it.  Here’s the familiar situation: having a few spare minutes, you open up your laptop to do some work, then you’d like to get online.  So you look at the list of available Wi-Fi hotspots and you see an open one think, “I wonder if I could just quickly send this email off?”

Using other’s Wi-Fi is a common occurrence, according to the Register.  Some Internet enthusiasts feel you’re doing humanity a favor by leaving your home wireless connection open for passers-by to use.  However security experts and opponents of this practice warn against subjecting yourself to legal troubles if a stranger uses your Internet connection for illicit activity.  In some instances, people have been arrested for utilizing Wi-Fi that wasn’t theirs.

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All the news this week about Starbucks changing wi-fi service providers and offering anyone with a Starbucks Card two free hours of wi-fi access has started a fresh dialogue surrounding wireless Internet access. That is, your local independent coffee houses are jumping up and down saying, “Hey! The wi-fi is free (and always has been) over here!”

As you may know, independent coffee shops have long offered wi-fi as an attractant for business people, road warriors, and web workers to get them in the door. For the longest time, many coffee drinkers and wi-fi seekers chose the independent houses because getting online used to cost $6-$10 an hour at Starbucks.

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If you’re a nomadic worker, one of the modern marvels of today’s technology is being able to hop on a wi-fi hotspot and get some work done.  This is why having a T-Mobile hotspot account has been so great for coffee-house workers.  Starbucks are virtually everywhere, especially in the United States.  Since 2001, T-Mobile has been the hotspot provider for Starbucks.

Not any more, as Glen Flieshman has pointed out. T-Mobile has been dropped by Starbucks in favor of AT&T as their wi-fi provider.  So now in addition to McDonalds, AT&T subscribers can add thousands of Starbucks to the number of locations they can get online and work.

The good news is that just for having a Starbucks card, you get 2 free hours of wi-fi a day.  Presumably this means that for just by making a purchase with your Starbucks card, you get 2 free hours of net access.

Additionally, AT&T lowered the price to $4 a day for a two hours of access, compared to T-Mobile’s $6-10 per hour charge.  AT&T is going to charge $20/month for unlimited access to wi-fi, the same as T-Mobile’s rate.  If you have AT&T DSL, you receive wi-fi access for free as a part of your monthly DSL rate.

For more info, check out AT&T’s press release.

Update: As Kevin pointed out in the comments, T-Mobile wi-fi customers will still be able to get online in Starbucks, under an agreement between AT&T and T-Mobile.  The details can be found in the press release mentioned above.