It is sometimes nice to get out and do my work away from home, maybe sit in a café and write articles but there is one major problem with this.
As a freelancer, to do my work I require the internet and in the UK this is almost impossible to do outside your home.
The lack of free public Wi-fi has become a pet peeve of mine. Having just returned from several months in South Korea I got so used to be able to do my work around town simply sipping coffee.
There, access to the internet is easy and is available everywhere. Coffee shops in Korea are not only places where people go to hang out but also a place where they work.
It is not just the big chains such as Starbucks that have free internet but also smaller independent coffee shops and cafes.
In most cafes Wi-fi is free but in places like Starbucks, McDonalds and Coffee Bean the internet is run by one of the major phone network providers.
All you have to do is enter your social ID number or your mobile number and you are connected.
It doesn’t matter if it is a Starbucks in the middle of the capital city or a small one on an island in the middle of nowhere – every place has it.
When it is so easy to access the internet, those of us who are self-employed can not only get out of the house once in a while but also work at the same time.
With this in mind, my question is: why can’t we have this system in the UK? Why is it so difficult to find free public Wi-fi?
The internet is becoming a more important part of people’s lives but the UK is falling so far behind, so hopefully with O2’s and The Cloud’s investments in wireless technology, being un-Wi-Fi-ied will become history.