So Slow! They have waterfalls in the airport, the world’s tallest structure, the largest gold plated building, man made islands with multimillion dollar condos, hotels with rates of $30,000/night, but the wireless? Forget about it! They were right, money can’t buy everything--but you would think that it could at least buy a decent internet connection.
It seems disheartening that if you’re in the UAE for business and need to shoot out a quick email before catching your flight home, its really not going to happen.
Emirates Air sets you up with a hotel room specifically for flights with long layovers with “internet accessible rooms.” i tried accessing their wireless from my room, no dice.
I thought, okay, no problem, I’ll just log on at the airport. Upon walking through security I see that Dubai International Airport has a FREE internet connection! I was thrilled...come to find out, it was so slow I couldn’t even log into my gmail account in the hour prior to takeoff. This was a complete let down since I had a couple of things to wrap up before getting onto my next 9 hour flight--and I wanted to tell Mama her little boy was OK.
On a similar note: Why does Virgin America, a”budget” provider in the States, have a great WiFi system, but the classy Emirates Air doesn’t even offer it to its patrons setting off on a 15 hour journey? A bit baffling for my internet addicted self. I could have been watching the opening match of the FIFA World Cup on ESPN360 live from my MacBook, instead I was watching highlights of the 1986 world cup to take care of my soccer itch.
While internet connectivity can be satisfied almost anywhere in the states, this journey to a far off land has left me grateful for the country we live in, at least as far as internet accessibility goes. USA! USA!
Sorry, the US vs. England game is on in a few hours, can’t hold back my patriotism.
Josh Levine, reporting live from Cape Town, South Africa
I am shocked no WiFi !!!
ReplyDelete