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If Parks Offer Free Internet, Why Can’t Costly Hotels?

I’M no cheapskate, but I watch costs carefully even when I’m traveling on the company dime. And I’m here to tell you, I am getting fed up with being charged $9.95 or more in an expensive hotel for broadband Internet service. Lots of business travelers tell me they feel the same.

Recently, my wife and I stayed at the Loews Hotel in Annapolis, Md., while spending a weekend visiting a favorite nephew who’s in his senior year at the Naval Academy. There was nothing especially wrong with the place, mind you, but it was just a run-of-the-mill four-star hotel that struck me as pretty overpriced at $310.60 a night – plus that annoying extra $9.95 charged each day for the high-speed Internet hookup.

I was still brooding about that recently as I sat retrieving e-mail messages from my laptop in Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan on a glorious late-summer afternoon. Free! In a city park! In Bryant Park and in many other public and commercial places nationally, Wi-Fi Internet service is provided without charge to anyone who wants it.

By JOE SHARKEY

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/business/27road.html?oref=login

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