Those who bring their own device from work have quickly gone from the minority to the majority, and the benefits are countless. Yet modern smartphones are rendered almost useless without an Internet connection, and 3G can get pricy quickly. Wi-Fi has gone from being an extra perk to a necessity. I know how shocking it has been when I’ve traveled abroad for work and forgotten to turn my data usage off and returned home only to find a hefty bill waiting there for me.
This is why I’d like to introduce BYOD’s new counterpart— BYON – “Bring Your Own Network.” If you already are bringing your own device to work, why not bring your own network? At iPass, we’ve just announced a new IT-Sponsored billing option that does just that – allows the individual business user to add the iPass service to their personal device that they use for work.
IT negotiates the rate, configures the client options and helps to manage the service. The end-user signs up for the service with their credit card, gets the same great service that they received on their corporate managed devices all at their low corporate rate.
Traveling for work can be rough; going from airport to airport, trying to fit a week’s worth of business casual in a small carry-on, inevitably forgetting a smartphone charger or pair of socks at home. Working while traveling shouldn’t be difficult or expensive, but it is when you don’t know when you’ll be able to access the Internet next.
If you BYON, you can relax knowing that you can use your Wi-Fi at any of our thousands of hotspots, look up the hotspot locations in advance using our Hotspot Finder, and use that money you just saved to buy an extra pair of socks or belt when on the road.
As I mentioned the other day, I should have known what I was going to
be faced with because when I travel internationally, I shut down data
and voice on the smart phone. Of course, I get this weird out of touch
feeling during the day when I am not in range of a hotspot – and when
I am in range, I don’t want to leave. I have been known to sneak the
phone back on to check voice messages or make a few calls – but this
is like having cake (or whatever you are not suppose to have) in the
house during your diet and convincing yourself that you will only have
one bite. Once the voice messages light up my screen, I find myself
having a conversation in my head that the international data roaming
charges really won’t be that bad if I just check my email, and maybe,
just one social media site…
But this Wi-Fi diet at home – this is really hard and I am surprised
at my agitation by the whole thing. Here, I know, that if I turn on
the phone, I won’t get the big international roaming charges. On the
other hand, I break my Wi-Fi diet, and I can’t do that because I
promised Zoe that I could easily do this. But then again, I am
irritating my friends and family by not picking up their calls or
voice messages… and yet it is nice not to be buzzed every few minutes…
So, instead of continuing like a yo-yo on a crash diet, I am going to
build a plan and stick with it. So here are my 5 diet rules to keep me
happily on Wi-Fi:
1. Start the morning right – First thing in the morning; I need to
connect to my home Wi-Fi and check emails, the calendar, and any other
update I am interested in.
2. Get Organized – check the hotspot finder to look for hotspots that
are along my commute or any place I am going to be.
3. Keep up to date – before I head out for lunch, the gym, or the
drive home, take a quick look at email/calendar/news sites, update the
phone. And make the VoiP call before getting into the car.
4. Enjoy the quiet time in the car – listen to music or the game with
no guilt and interruption free.
5. When calling on VoIP and there is no answer, leave a message and
remind them that they need to try you back on VoIP or send an email
and that you will call back again later.
I am hoping that a little organization will keep me from feeling so
out of touch and within easy reach of a hotspot. And I think these
rules are useful for those of you traveling Internationally (with or
without the phone service). So far, I have found 2 hotspots along my
commute with easy parking, as well as a hotspot next to the gym. There
is no reason now why I can’t continue on this in peace.
I read my morning email, sync my email and calendar then head off to work. I leave early because I have an early meeting – and guess what, I can’t dial in because I have no phone service in the car. But, remember that date with the iPass Hotspot Finder? Yep – I actually kept it and found the perfect lunch place at a nearby iPass hotel hotspot that has a restaurant and a coffee shop. I planned on meeting a friend there and arrive early (and she is always late), but no fear, I also brought my Mac with me so I got some work done after a successful connection to the iPass hotspot.
Hurray! I love the Internet and don’t want to starve myself from it any more. Better planning meant better productivity.
Diets start easily for me – Day One I feel great and super bullish on the progress that I am going to make. Then Day Two creeps in and I start to question the whole idea of a diet and feel desperately craving the very thing that I am avoiding. It is torture to say the least and I remember that the word “die” is at the center of it all.
I was certain that this would be a cakewalk since I wasn’t addicted to the Internet. However, unlike a normal food diet, the beginning of the Wi-Fi diet was far from great. I turned airplane mode on and Wi-Fi on first thing in the morning and headed to work. I usually look at email on either my laptop or phone, but that morning, I just headed out without a glance.
I kept busy at work, then rushed out to do some errands. While waiting in the checkout line, I was stuck behind a woman who was disputing the expiration date on a coupon for some detergent – so, I did what any normal person would do – I pulled out my phone to find entertainment on the Internet… but there was nothing. No signal at all. Just the orange airplane icon on the upper left. And since I didn’t sync up my email or anything else for that matter at home or in the office – I had nothing.
Just the whining of the customer in front of me… should I just give her the 50 cents? I looked up from my phone and told myself to be patient, we’ll go to lunch and it will be resolved.
Knowing I only had a few minutes left of lunch, I went to a place that was a quick drive away, put in my order, pulled out my phone and… nothing again. Really? I thought the Bay Area was littered with Wi-Fi – especially free Wi-Fi everywhere? I felt completely disconnected from the world and hurried back to the office to get me some Internet and feel whole again.
Then the usually short drive home – my chance to do the mandatory call to mom, then the fun calls to catch up with friends. By now, I am grumpy and sulking all the way home.
But really, I should have known better. When I travel internationally, I have gotten into the habit of turning on Airplane mode and Wi-Fi on – so this wasn’t really a new experience for me. The key difference is that when I travel, I am much more organized. I usually make sure that at every Wi-Fi connection I have I download the details I need on my phone so I can have it on hand. But more importantly, I check the iPass Hotspot Finder at the start of my day to make sure I will be within steps of an iPass hotspot.
I make a promise to myself to make Day 2 great by starting my day with a breakfast date with the iPass Hotspot Finder.
As iPass employees, Zoe Paknad and I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about Wi-Fi. We both have the iPass Open Mobile client downloaded on our smart phones and are frequent enough users of it. One day, it occurred to us– what would happen if we chose Wi-Fi over 3G every single day for a week? Could it be done?
We decided to try it out, and we’re calling it the Wi-Fi diet. The Wi-Fi diet means putting our smart phones on Airplane Mode and enabling the Wi-Fi setting so that we can only use Wi-Fi. For phone calls, we can use a voiceover IP service. For texts, an app. For a week we will say goodbye to the traditional smartphone experience, so that we can attempt to operate in the way of the future—using only Wi-Fi.
Throughout this journey, we will chronicle all of the obstacles we may encounter. Is it as difficult as everyone says? Are the savings on our phone bills substantial? To prove our commitment and demonstrate our progress, we will show our data usage via the Open Mobile’s clients Usage Meter—so we can see exactly how much data we are using and ensure that we never accidentally use 3G.
Will we last the whole week without cellular data? Stay tuned for this week’s Wi-Fi diet with Zoe and Chris!
Those who bring their own device from work have quickly gone from the minority to the majority, and the benefits are countless. Yet modern smartphones are rendered almost useless without an Internet connection, and 3G can get pricy quickly. Wi-Fi has gone from being an extra perk to a necessity. I know how shocking it has been when I’ve traveled abroad for work and forgotten to turn my data usage off and returned home only to find a hefty bill waiting there for me.
