Why is public WiFi in Europe so painful?

#1

Post by pswenson » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 8:08 PM UTC

Why is WiFi in Europe so awful? Every public network wants you to sign up via a painful signup process (enter a user name/pw/address/age/email/etc). In the US it's usually as simple as accept a EULA. Are there laws concerning this in Europe? Is it all about liability?

I am curious as to why as I'm used to the mostly frictionless US way and find it much nicer.

Re: Why is public WiFi in Europe so painful?

#2

Post by venomsnake » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 8:33 PM UTC

They made the owner of wi-fi networks liable for all actions. In Spain I think. Mostly for the benefit of the carriers. Because almost everywhere there were open wifi-s before the law. But you can get 1GB 3G traffic for the modest 20 euro .. .

Re: Why is public WiFi in Europe so painful?

#3

Post by ysleepy » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 11:44 PM UTC

It is liability. In Germany for example they are currently debating of easing up on it, so free WiFi can be deployed in Berlin.

Re: Why is public WiFi in Europe so painful?

#4

Post by joeycfan » Mon, Oct 22, 2012, 12:31 AM UTC

It's immensely expensive too - I used wifi on the island of Gibraltar and it was over a euro a minute.....

Re: Why is public WiFi in Europe so painful?

#5

Post by _delirium » Mon, Oct 22, 2012, 2:23 AM UTC

Depends strongly on the country. It's not too bad in some. At Baresso coffee shops in Denmark you just click through to the wifi with no signup/password. And Helsinki has free no-login wifi across the whole city center.

Re: Why is public WiFi in Europe so painful?

#6

Post by ivanbrezakbrkan » Mon, Oct 22, 2012, 6:07 AM UTC

As _delirium said, depends on the country. Sofia (BG) has wifi all over the place while my own hometown Zagreb (CRO) doesn't...