I think wifi is way overhyped (as taking over from GSM). OK, I am not what I would call a frequent business traveller, but I have travelled around Europe, both as a private pilot and more conventionally, and more often than not the options I have are one or more of
1. no wifi connection at all
2. wifi connection but you have to purchase a time block, and the minimum purchase unit is a day/week/month and the credit card billing is repeated
until I tell them to stop billing, which is a really great way to get ripped off
2b. as above but the minimum charging quantum is say Euro 10, which is a few MB on GPRS, but I just want to check/send a few little emails...
3. wifi connection with a password but the supplied pwd doesn't work, despite me trying it as 64-bit wep, 128-bit wep, wpa-psk (in both ascii and hex modes) and wpa2 (likewise), and none of the dumb hotel staff know anything about it
4. the wifi connection works but some ports are blocked
5. the wifi is in an internet cafe which is so full of fag smoke that I need to chuck my clothes in the wash when I get back (not useful if on holiday)
6. the upload bandwidth is throttled to a few kbytes/second (the common T-Mobile Starbucks-type network likes doing that) which is OK until you want to upload some pictures / web updates...
Etc.
I have had some great exceptions to the above; one tiny hotel in Italy had free ethernet with megabits/sec speeds both up and down, and one flying school in Arizona likewise (though I had to beg for it). And occassionally you can pick up "somebody's" signal sitting outside a cafe. But this is rare and getting more rare as every business spots the business opportunity in making money out of it.
I am certain that if you have a PDA (less conspicuous than a laptop
) with Netstumbler on it, and take a walk away from the business areas of a city, into the residential areas, you will pick up as many wide open access points as I can right here where I live (dozens within a short walk) but then do you want to be doing that, with your laptop, looking like some perv in a trenchcoat and a bag of sweeties, trying to download some dodgy videos?
That's why I use
GPRS.... so much less hassle. On Vodafone PAYG, you get
no blocked ports. I use a Sierra 750 PCMCIA card (off Ebay) which does GSM, GPRS, GSM fax, SMS, and works everywhere incl the USA.
As a private pilot, any hassle at all on the internet access front is just not worth while. You've got to be able to get weather, file the flight plan, etc.
For the big transfers, I take the laptop to an internet cafe whey they allow an ethernet connection.... even then i find blocked ports are routine.
Skype is great but only when you can get a permanent free connection. If you want to use it as a normal telephone in a hotel, you've got to buy 24/7 access and that's usually not cheap. It will cost you more than just using your mobile phone and roaming.
So I can see the GSM networks not being too bothered. Sure, dedicated gadget anoraks can always beat the system to a degree, but your average Joe Bloggs will never be bothered.
Business travellers are heavily subsidised by their employers but again if the usage gets really high the company will do something about it (like sorting out a local SIM card, and setting up call redirection to the mobile # via an extension in the company's switchboard, so phone calls to the said person are transparent).