Starbucks, WIFI, Internet and South Korea
September 30th, 2008 | by Stefan Esser |
When I came to Seoul, South Korea I had already heard about the high distribution of broadband internet access. Therefore I was not suprised at all that my hotel room had ethernet sockets that provided me with fast internet access. What suprised me however was the fact that it was for free. In Germany or the USA you usually pay atleast 10$ per day for a similiar connection.
On the other hand when I visited Starbucks I had to learn the hard way that without Microsoft Windows you are an outsider in South Korea. It is simply not possible to connect to the NETSPOT hotspots within Starbucks Korea without Microsoft Windows and without Internet Explorer. On the one hand their special connectivity software only exists for Windows and on the other hand the web login seems to require an activex module for credit card payment.
With this kind of limit in place I can now understand why devices like the IPOD Touch are far cheaper in South Korea than in Germany. You simply cannot use them 
I think the guys behind NETSPOT should really consider redesigning their system to be compatible to non Microsoft systems, like osx or linux. After all it is not that hard to do credit card billing.
PS.1: Yes I know that the NETSPOT hotspots seem to let everything through on port 53 UDP which might allow VPN tunnels on port 53 but I am only speaking about legal access here.
PS.2: Beside that little annoyance I really love South Korea and plan to come back as often as possible
3 Responses to “Starbucks, WIFI, Internet and South Korea”
By Flavia Watch on Oct 1, 2008 | Reply
Wow! So, did you buy an iPod Touch there?
By Stefan Esser on Oct 1, 2008 | Reply
@Flavia Watch:
No I did not buy an IPOD Touch. The new version of the IPOD Touch has not yet arrived in the stores here and according to the korean apple online store getting a new one means waiting for 3 weeks. At that time I am not in korea anymore.