Originally Posted by
BadgerBoi
Yep, and last time I was in Paris I made sure that I kept quiet about the fact that the three little cafés on my block all offered free wifi, although they did lack the, errr, 'ambience' of the junk food/rubbish coffee places.
The two very good cafe near my house also have wifi- although they don't advertise it and they don't give out the password all that freely. Remember in some European countries (like Italy) the laws are backwards are unclear on what data you need to collect and retain for people using your wifi network- as such a lot of small operators don't want to go through all the hassles required for an authentication system etc. The laws are changing- they take some time though to all be in alignment such that an operator can just leave their network open and free. Silly however that is the way it is.