The family vacation update: free Wi-Fi along the road

No need to wait for that coffee shop in the next town. You can just park at a highway rest stop and fire up the Wi-Fi.

That's the idea behind a plan to establish Wi-Fi hotspots at up to 60 rest stops welcome centers, and turnpike plazas throughout Florida, along Interstate-95 and elsewhere. The state won't have to pay anything, and neither will you.

You see, the provider, Coach Connect, will do all the building and the providing; in return, the company gets to put up 40-inch plasma screens showing travel and safety information and, of course, advertising.


Your free use ends at 30 minutes, which is much more time than you'd typically spend at a rest stop anyway. You can check your email, your hotel reservations, current traffic conditions, and much more. A built-in firewall will preclude you from checking illegal sites, however.

Similar systems are in use in Oregon and Washington and at RV parks across the country.




Written by Tom Charity
Published in Wireless