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The joys of no wireless in Portugal

Some time back, I wrote an enthusiastic piece about how Portuguese oil giant, GALP, was launching into the mobile business. It was only a smartphone, but (somehow) I came away with the distinct impression that there was a surging, thrusting, vibrant (etc etc) mobile business erupting - well, enough dubious imagery. The point is, I'm in Portugal, and WiFi seems to be a dirty word.

The purpose of the visit isn't business: I have family duties (I have to sit on a beach and play with a small baby, if you insist). But I arranged the trip with connectivity in mind.

First, the plan was to have an Inmarsat BGAN dish. It's the size of a lunch pail for a schoolchild, and it's quick, and Inmarsat was keen for me to try it out... but apparently, they don't have a spare one this week.

Not to worry! - I'll rely on my trusty Nokia series 60 3G phone (I thought) which, although temperamental, can usually be coaxed into an Internet link. And not slow, either.

That plan would have worked. The two problems I had to solve: first, remember to bring the USB cable that links phone to PC or, second, get either Nokia or the phone company to find a reliable way of making the Bluetooth link work. And I forgot the cable. I have no idea how I managed that.

And I have even less idea how to fix the Bluetooth modem. It says contact tech support... well, easily done on the Internet, duh...

So I'm sitting in this www.luz.com Internet cafe and trying not to spend the family inheritance on permanent connection. The trouble is, no wireless.

If you use this place on the Broadreach model, you only pay for time actually online. You can spend five minutes here, and they deduct only five minutes from your season ticket. And at ten Euros for 270 minutes, it's pretty good value. The trouble is, they don't have wireless.

If I had wireless on the Broadreach model, life would be good. I could dive online, grab stuff, drop the line, and then write. Then I'd dive back  online, and upload; and only five minutes of online time would be used. But no; most WiFi hotspots want you to spend your Euros on doing nothing. You log on, download a few bytes - and then, while you're writing, the timer still ticks. You only use two minutes online. And then, half an hour later, another two minutes. "That will be half an hour, Sir!" they smile.

Expect this week to be sparse in news. I'll do my best... but this cafe doesn't even have WiFi, so it's a question of walk around, dive online, grab the data, then walk back to the villa, and work, then walk back here and dive online.

It's a nice internet cafe. I just wish I could access it from home, on demand.