Staying Connected at the WTM

As each day passes, we become more and more reliant on technology. The number of emails we all receive increases day by day, and they all seem to be labeled urgent, even the jokes that take 10 minutes to download, only for you to discover you received it three days ago from another friend and it really isn't that funny in the first place, and because you are on a business trip in Vietnam has cost you around US$ 10 just to download. For those that use laptops, they are finding that it is becoming more and more difficult to leave the office behind and take some much needed time off. What if that email comes in ?? What if ....

Although some people do find ways of leaving work and the office behind by 'accidentally' forwarding emails to a subordinate and then 'forgetting' their own laptop in the office. The one time we can never afford to be without the wonders of cyberspace and especially our email accounts is when we are away on a business trip.

The upcoming World Travel Market in London poses such a dilemma. Thankfully technology is making it even easier for us to connect, with roaming services that allow you to connect pretty much anywhere in the world on a local number and be charged by the minute and per connection by your ISP (Internet Service Provider) back in your home country.

To find out more about these roaming services and whether you need a special password or log in ID then call your ISP and ask them. Loxinfo in Thailand and Cyberway in Singapore for example both require you to use a different log in than the one you would normally use. So do make sure you ask them before heading off.

Once you know how to connect you will need to know where to connect. If your service uses GRIC, then simple print out their phone book for the country you are going to. The UK phone book can be found HERE (click HERE if that link does not work).

Unfortunately, as any traveller will know connecting in such a way does not always work. Plus you come home to an enormous bill as you generally pay per connection, and per minute, plus your hotel telephone bill.

In England there may indeed be an alternative to save you all this stress, aggravation and money. We are not promising you it will work, but it did when we tested it and it might just work for you.

What am I going on about ?! Well it is quite simple really. In the UK there are a lot of free internet connection plans, which basically offer you the chance to surf for free. Most are not accessible to foreigners or visitors to the country, but there is one that just might be.

Freeserve allows you to open as many accounts as you would like free of charge on the internet. It gives you a connection number for you to call into, your user name (that you can choose), and a password (that you also choose).

This means that before you leave for the UK you could set up your new account by going to https://www.freeserve.com clicking join now, fill in the form, then using your dial up connection wizard create a new connection icon. That is it ! Once you arrive in the UK, you should simply be able to log on to the internet by using your new freeserve account. This means that all you would pay would be the local telephone connection of where you are staying.

As we have said before, we have tested this and it does work. However we are not suggesting that you do not check with your ISP, and print out the GRIC phonebook do so and regard freeserve (if it works) as a bonus.

To register with freeserve only takes a few minutes but may save you a lot of money.