One of the questions I get asked over and over every summer is "Where can I get Internet access?" -- the good news is that there are answers, the better news is that there may soon be lots of answers.

Back in '95, my friend Gene would drive out from his cottage to our house several times a week; he'd become enthralled with some internet contest and to participate, he had to check his email regularly. Hard as it is to believe, in 1995, 'regularly' meant only a few times a week; back in those innocent days, our house was about the only place in Sauble where you could get Internet.

Today, your primary answer is the Sauble Beach branch of the Bruce County Libraries ... when it is open access is only 56k dial-up on quaint old machines, but it's there, it's affordable; it's access and nothing to sneeze at. Whatever works. Similar access can also be found at the new digs of the Wiarton Branch. Readers of my personal blog will know of a few unofficial hotspots in the village and I'll bet there may be a few added since then; I have also mapped a few more over in Owen Sound, although, if you've come here expecting toll WiFi I'm afraid you're still out of luck.

But maybe soon, and maybe sooner than you think.

the wired inns

Some may have noticed new signs at some of our motels and hotels advertising modem-friendly telephones in-suite; yes, this is a new development (you did, after all, come here to get away from all that!) -- if you have an ISP who provides roaming, you're set if you've lodged at one of these.

But while just having telephones to the rooms may be something new, our tardiness in embracing such conveniences may turn out to have been a saving grace: Brian d'Foy writes on O'Reilly about a brave new trend among the smaller accommodations operators who are not already weighed down with unamortized wirings ...

All of a sudden the less expensive hotels have a huge advantage over the fancier ones. The cheaper hotels never laid out the money to wire all their rooms with cables and ports and all of the tangible stuff that it takes to create a wired network. A third party company adds wireless access to the hotel for much less expense.

While his article only discusses the situation States side, the move gives the unencumbered small operator that needed competitive edge over the chain lodgings, and it's easy and cheap to do. Hotels, motels, cafés, heck, why not the campgrounds too?

And it is cheap, maybe $3000 for a complete DIY WiFi access port and even more especially so when it's the 3rd party outsider doing all the work and taking all the risk (and profit) -- I've already seen SpotNIK Mobile absorb virtually every previously free hobbiest hotspot in downtown Toronto like it was the Borg Collective conquering planets, and for good reason too: No worries, zero maintenance, safe and secure are all words you don't often hear used to describe roll-outs of any sort of high-tech. For the hotspot host, it's signed, sealed, delivered and it's your edge on the market.

From the tourists' point of view, considering the pain of trying to stay connected over a cell phone, and the booming demand I hear from tourists on the beach and emails to the SBP, there is certainly enough demand to make a business case!

So remember, you read it here first: Next summer, pack a WiFi card in with your sunscreen!

[ Source: Cheap hotels have better internet ]