Update: I just received an email from Christian Gunning of Boingo clarifying the situation, and stating that if you indeed are on a Mobile or Global plan, you will not pay extra fees at premium locations, i.e. you can connect anywhere for the plan’s price, and no more. Only if you are on the Unlimited plan, and happen to come by one of the premium locations, you will pay the extra fee. Additionally, they will work on improving how the premium location fees are communicated to users, so as to not appear applicable to everyone. Their quick response is really appreciated, and the post will be ammended accordingly. I only wish they would have replied to an email I sent a couple of weeks ago requesting information about this, but in any case, the matter is clear now.
I was nicely surprised by a press release from Boingo, related to their offer of free WiFi connectivity to attendees of the Nokia World 2007 conference in Amsterdam, but when I read the end of the release, surprise turned to shock when I saw a not too well communicated statement. If you search for WiFi locations on Boingo’s page, and for example, simply select ‘Spain’, the first results you see are these. Note the ‘Premium Location – See details’ on each entry. If you click the details link, you are taken to this information page which informs you that the connection to this WiFi network will cost you $0.12 per minute, [Update: only if you are on the Unlimited plan].
This release caught my eye, as at Whisher we are working on a solution that will try to improve on this model, and give you convenient access at a very large number of locations (maybe even more than Boingo!). I cannot really blog about this yet, but I think if you use WiFi when traveling around, you will definitely like it.