I'm currently traveling between Antwerp and Amsterdam by train. I don't have a mobile internet connection yet, but luckily every station in The Netherlands seems to have KPN Hotspot. As even trains seem to suffer from traffic jams in Holland, I try to catch one of those hotspots:

1. By SMS: Doesn't work with a foreign mobile number (I'm sitting on the international train from Paris to Amsterdam, remember)
2. Microsoft offers me 15 minutes free Wifi if I watch a 2 minute demo of their products. I let the demo run but don't watch it, and then I get a page that will give me free access ... just need to enter my Dutch mobile number. Right ...
3. Credit Card: How expensive can it be I think, so I click on the credit card option. Please make yourself an account ... ok ... just when I start figuring out how to fill in this form the train starts moving again. Too late.

Thank god for the "PC Club Hofstad" in the next station that has an open Wifi network. It wasn't blazing fast but at least I could send some important mails out.

I have a similar experience with the Proximus hotspots, where it takes a technical analyst to figure out how to use the "free credit" I have as an ADSL customer to then discover the network is too slow to even fill in the necessary forms to get access. Oh and the sites don't really work on an iPhone.

Dear Telco's, get you act together please.

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