Working Anywhere

New York Times on Smartphone Apps for Those on The Road

I caught a very good article summarizing a bunch of applications for smartphone users in today's New York Times. It's timely, as the spring season arrives, we see more people on the road. With these apps lots of activities just got easier.

Hotels Make Excuses About Poor Bandwidth

Hotels are being attacked by users who are demanding better, and more robust bandwidth in their rooms and conference facilities. They are reacting by blaming things like Peer To Peer file sharing which for some funny reason is cutting into their Pay Per View revenue, services like You Tube where the content is fee and other Social Networking sites.

Part of the issue is that business grade hotels and tourist grade hotels are different. You don't stay at a Motel 6 when you should be in a four Seasons. While both provide a bed and a bathroom, there's a big difference in the quality though, and sadly the bandwidth and connectivity should reflect the quality of the establishment.

Unlike many, I'm okay with paying for my bandwidth, as long as it's rock solid. But like the JW Marriott in Rancho Mirage, $12.95 a day for what they call Internet access is a bit steep for the service which is so lousy. Compare that to the Hotel 1000 in Seattle or the InterContinental in San Francisco where the speeds are like the room and the whole hotel. Business ready. Business grade and Business capable.

From my perspective the story is more justification as to who is to blame, but instead of simply saying most hotels are underpowered and support the concept of expandable bandwidth or "bandwidth on demand." Hotels need to go in that direction just like the added more TV channels in the room. The market simply demands it.