Finally, a solution for bad hotel internet

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Frequent readers of this blog might think that I spend all day, every day sitting in my parents’ basement, huddled in front of a monitor. Well, the joke’s on you, my parents don’t even have a basement. More to the point, I actually spend a lot of time on the road, on planes and in hotels. I’m out looking for the best products, meeting with industry leaders and working to bring new ideas to SolidSignal.com. This blog is just a part of that.

With as much time as I spend on the road, you would think sooner or later I would get used to the truly horrendous state of electronics in hotel rooms. I’ve been complaining about it for years! Yet, surprisingly things seem to be getting worse.

Typical state of business hotels in 2018: pretty sad

I stay in a lot of business-level hotels. I get a clean, comfortable room with enough hot water to wash off whatever weird bugs I get from traveling on planes with 250 of my closest new acquaintances. And that’s about all I need, except…

Obviously I need to get work done.

At my last stay in a mid-priced business class hotel, the internet speed was about .125 megabits per second. To put that in perspective, that is about 1/100th of the speed you can get from an average cell phone connection and 1/800th of the speed that you’re probably rated to get at home. At this speed, videos refuse to play, simple email is a chore, and web browsing is an exercise in insanity.

So OK, let’s relax a bit instead of working. The TV had 35 channels of badly distorted standard definition programming. The only thing worse than the snowy dull picture was the fact that live video cut out maybe once every five minutes for ten seconds or so.

This is a level of technological advancement I wouldn’t have accepted in 2003, never mind 2018. It’s hard to find hard data from that far back but I remember personally I had a 3 megabit connection (24 times faster than the hotel room) back then, having recently upgraded from 768K (6 times faster than the hotel room.) I don’t remember if that was common or not. But does it matter?

Finally, a solution

After all these years of dealing with bad hotel internet and even worse TV, I’m glad to say I finally have a solution. It’s a solution you too can share.

I recently upgraded to AT&T Unlimited Plus, through my friends at Solid Signal. That’s right, they are now qualified to offer cell phone plans as well as DIRECTV and DISH satellite. It’s hard to even put into words the difference it’s made.

Bad internet in the hotel? Who cares? I just connect using a wireless hotspot and I get great, reliable internet that blows away the hotel’s built-in stuff. No more calling the front desk and complaining for me!

With a decent sized laptop, I hardly ever watch the hotel TV anymore either. I just stream my favorite DIRECTV content anytime I want and I don’t worry about data caps or low speed connections.

A side benefit is that with the AT&T network I don’t find myself standing by the window to make a phone call as I have had to do in the past either. It’s nice and strong and I’ve yet to find any place that lacks a good cell phone connection. You can’t say that about every provider.

I’m a convert… how about you?

If you’re looking to upgrade your travel experience, call the folks at Solid Signal at 888-233-7563. It’s hard to even put into words the difference it will make to your travel experience.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.