WiFi for travelers.
Before you travel, look up locations for free Internet service. Paris has free WiFi in many of its parks. HotCaf.fr has plenty of locations in the area.
One thing that Americans usually fail to consider is buying a prepaid SIM for their GSM smart phone. Many plans include internet service along with voice and SMS at a monthly charge that's less than the price for one or two days at a hotel. In Hong Kong, I paid less than $30 monthly fee for service that's more than 10-X faster than what I have at home, even though I was only there for two weeks--well worth it, if you can't get to a Pacific Coffee shop.
The U.S. is one of the worst places in the developed world to find ubiquitous cheap [$40/mo] high speed broadband [20-40Mbps and more], and mobile services that aren't a complete rip-off. Maybe some day, but customers don't know enough to demand better than what we have. Where I live I'd have to pay $70/mo for 12Mbps service, but I refuse to pay such an outrageously high rate and you should too.
