
Why is public WiFi in Europe so painful? - pswenson
Why is WiFi in Europe so awful?  Every public network wants you to sign up via a painful signup process (enter a user name/pw/address/age/email/etc).  In the US it's usually as simple as accept a EULA.  Are there laws concerning this in Europe?  Is it all about liability?&#60;p&#62;I am curious as to why as I'm used to the mostly frictionless US way and find it much nicer.
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venomsnake
They made the owner of wi-fi networks liable for all actions. In Spain I
think. Mostly for the benefit of the carriers. Because almost everywhere there
were open wifi-s before the law. But you can get 1GB 3G traffic for the modest
20 euro .. .

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_delirium
Depends strongly on the country. It's not too bad in some. At Baresso coffee
shops in Denmark you just click through to the wifi with no signup/password.
And Helsinki has free no-login wifi across the whole city center.

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ivanbrezakbrkan
As _delirium said, depends on the country. Sofia (BG) has wifi all over the
place while my own hometown Zagreb (CRO) doesn't...

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ysleepy
It is liability. In Germany for example they are currently debating of easing
up on it, so free WiFi can be deployed in Berlin.

