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McDonalds around the world has traditionally been a place you could always find a free wi-fi connection, but that may be about to change.
Recently, I spent a couple of weeks in Bucharest on business, and my hotel wi-fi had an annoying tendency to crash, so I found myself walking half a block to a McDonalds to get on the internet fairly often. The first couple of times, the availible connections list showed the usual McDonalds Free WiFI, but after that it started coming up as ''McDonalds wifi - 5 lei''. When I clicked on it, I still got wifi free, but it appears to be a phase in to alert customers that paid wifi is coming. Since then, I have spent a few days each in Iasi and Suceava and out of curiosity went to McDonalds there and again it came up as McDonalds wifi - 5 lei in both cities. I don't know if this is for now just a Romania thing, if Romania is a test for the whole system, or if this is appearing all over. I will be spending a few days in Vienna shortly, and it will be interesting to see if I encounter the same thing there. Five lei is US$1.25 and nothing so far indicates how much time you get for that. Vienna will be interesting to see, as they are big on extra charges, such as all of the fastfoods, including McDonalds having had pay restrooms for years, where you cannot even wash your hands without paying to enter the restroom. If Bucharest McDonalds has this wifi fee, it is likely Vienna does, too.
Recently, I spent a couple of weeks in Bucharest on business, and my hotel wi-fi had an annoying tendency to crash, so I found myself walking half a block to a McDonalds to get on the internet fairly often. The first couple of times, the availible connections list showed the usual McDonalds Free WiFI, but after that it started coming up as ''McDonalds wifi - 5 lei''. When I clicked on it, I still got wifi free, but it appears to be a phase in to alert customers that paid wifi is coming. Since then, I have spent a few days each in Iasi and Suceava and out of curiosity went to McDonalds there and again it came up as McDonalds wifi - 5 lei in both cities. I don't know if this is for now just a Romania thing, if Romania is a test for the whole system, or if this is appearing all over. I will be spending a few days in Vienna shortly, and it will be interesting to see if I encounter the same thing there. Five lei is US$1.25 and nothing so far indicates how much time you get for that. Vienna will be interesting to see, as they are big on extra charges, such as all of the fastfoods, including McDonalds having had pay restrooms for years, where you cannot even wash your hands without paying to enter the restroom. If Bucharest McDonalds has this wifi fee, it is likely Vienna does, too.
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