Boingo Free WiFi

It turns out, Boingo is a great service for using free WiFi near train stations and other public places with lots of WiFi services.

I couldn't use it at school because there were no public WiFi services nearby. We have a private school WiFi that's free to students anyway so that's not a problem.

I couldn't use the service at home for the same reason.

In my last trip to Beijing, there was no need to use the service at all in the hotel considering free WiFi was provided by the hotel.  McDonald's also provides free WiFi but you can only use it if you have a working mobile contact number. That works in Beijing.

In Japan, Boingo provides me online access as long as my phone can connect to any of the public WiFi hotspot provided by Japanese network providers (DoCoMo, Softbank, etc). These public WiFi services often require you to register with a working Japanese mobile phone or phone mail (not the same as email). Or they require that you own a password that you have to pay for first. But with Boingo, you can connect to them for free as long as Boingo recognizes them as a Boingo affiliated service.

Just register for an account with Boingo and you're good to go. They also provide a premium service if you're willing to pay for it. It's probably worth it if you're going to be travelling every month or at least frequently enough to need it. It's cheaper than getting a portable WiFi device but be reminded that it only works best in public places.

Portable WiFi devices on the other hand works like a mobile phone that lets you connect multiple devices to that one WiFi service. Kind of like a portable router. Its versatility is worth the money you pay for it.