Free WiFi in Munich Airport
As you may have noticed from my post on Frankfurt’s free airport wifi, free wireless internet in German airports and Germany in general, is hard to come by.
You can get on the internet at Munich Airport (MUC) in Terminal 2 at a kiosk of four computers offering free internet. These have German keyboards so a few keys may give you pause. (The Z and the Y are swapped, and to get the @ sign you need to do Alt-Gr + Q)
To get to these computers, pass through security, turn left toward Gates G 1-17, and you will see it on your right as you come to the first moving walkways.
Telekom offers 30 minutes of free WiFi. When you connect, the login page comes up and you need to enter a cell phone number to receive the pin number. I entered mine but never got it. I was using a Thai cell number, so that may have had something to do with it (though I had received text messages before using it in the airport and the options for Thailand and many others are listed in the menu of country codes for pin section.
Outside the security area there is a Starbucks in Terminal 2. This is worth a try as well, but be sure to give yourself plenty of time to get back through security for your flight; I found security a bit slow and Germans didn’t seem to be in a big rush.
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Do send these airports emails about your complaints. I did send the following to Munich Airport’s Operator, and it does appear that they now only require an email address (probably any will work), not a mobile phone number, so maybe it helped:
“Most modern international airports around the world offer proper free Wifi access.
The Munich Airport does not.
A 30-minute limit for free access, and an SMS-based registration process is unconscionable in today’s world of connectedness and cheap internet access.
As a Canadian, receiving an SMS on my Canadian phone while in Germany would incur a significant expense per-SMS, and there would undoubtedly be several SMSs waiting in the queue that I would have to pay to receive.
Such a system is senseless, just have a splash page with a user agreement and be done with it.
What does someone want to do the moment they land after a transatlantic flight, or while waiting hours for a connection? Check their email, check Facebook or other social tasks.
4,95 EUR per hour compares very unfavourably with other modern airports such as Toronto:
http://www.torontopearson.com/en/shopdinerelax/free-wifi/
or Vancouver:
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=629a59bd-8b57-4979-8d80-ac899381c09a
Why does McDonald’s offer free wifi and WCs around the world at its locations? Because it is good for business, even if there is an expense in providing it, and even if people use it without purchasing anything. It makes the experience better, and gives them a good reputation.
Given the free wifi at McDonalds, nobody is going to make a trip to the Munich Airport to anonymously launch a web attack or abuse the network, they’ll just do so at their neighbourhood McDonalds while eating a Big Mac. There’s no reason for the registration process, and no reason for charging an unconscionable 4,95EUR/hr for internet on the ground.”
I think I sent the same to Frankfurt’s, but I can’t seem to find any record of it. At least they’ve updated their requirements too.
Still not modern, but an improvement nonetheless.
You can get the 30min without SMS verification, an email address will do. Actually it’s not limited by IP: just write a different email address everytime and you get your 30min over and over again