EightBlack.

Recently, we had a colleague out from the US and we put him up in one of the most well known serviced apartment businesses in Australia. A client no less.

But would you believe that the franchisee did not have any sort of internet connectivity.

And their key target market is the business traveller.

Have you seen a technology savvy, 29 year old without an internet connection for 10 days? It was worse than watching a cocaine user being deprived of his daily fix.

In the end, we sourced him a wireless data card for his laptop - but because 3G coverage is still lousy in major parts of the city, he had to stand on one leg, in the far corner of the room, with the laptop held above his head at 45 degrees and at the same time, chant an African mating song.

Or something like that.

Then there was last week. Decided to take a few days off and went to a well known island in Queensland. When I enquired about an internet connection or internet access, the obliging receptionist pointed me to a small guest lounge where there existed 2 of those internet kiosks you often see at 3rd world airports. You know, you put a bunch of money in them and for 15 minutes, you can access the internet.

Trouble is, both of these machines were connected to a phone line and when you put the money in - you heard a yell from out the back somewhere and some guy yelling “Shit Stan, another one of those city folk have put money in that damn web machine again….pedal like buggery…”

Or something like this.

It was so slow it wasn’t worth using.

It’s one of the reasons I use a BlackBerry - and because there was a Telstra tower on the island, I could relax and still feel connected to the world.

So here’s my point. Today’s society is connected. It wants to be. No it needs to be. Our kids have mobiles. The web and the internet touch our lives every day. There’s no point hoping it will go away and whether people are travelling on business or are trying to get away for a few days, people want to stay in touch.

This poor American buddy of mine went back to the US, shaking his head in disbelief at a) the lack of connectivity and b) why the toilets flushed the wrong way (ok, he was from Texas).

There’s no excuse. If you’re in business and have anything to do with customers like the 2 businesses above, not having access to the web is like depriving people of air.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 6:26 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.