Europe Adds 5,000 New 3DS Hotspots

Those in Europe who have the unhealthy obsession of playing Mario Kart online at all hours of the day will be happy to hear that 5,000 new 3DS Wi-Fi hotspots have been added across Europe. The hotspots will be provided through a partnership Nintendo has with free-hotspot.com. Nintendo’s alternative may not be as logistical as providing a dedicated 3G connection, but at least this is free. If you’re in Europe and want to see if your country will be receiving more hotspots, please read on. 

Nintendo Wi-Fi hotspots are not a new trend for the console maker. Free Wi-Fi hotspots began back in the days the early days of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and the Nintendo DS. Hotspots began appearing back in 2005 when Nintendo struck a deal with Texas-based firm Wayport, Inc. to provide free Wi-Fi access at McDonald’s restaurants across the U.S. However, the deal with Wayport, Inc. was not renewed a new deal with FatPort brought Wi-Fi hotspots to Canada in October 2005. Wi-FI hotspots were brought to Europe in 2006 via a partnership with The Cloud and BT Openzone.

Nintendo’s partnership with free-hotspot.com will provide "over 5,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across 21 European countries." Nintendo says that 3DS users will be able to automatically connect to these hotspots in participating hotels and restaurants across Europe. The list of hotel and restaurant chains participating in this new hotspot initiative includes McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Subway, Ibis Hotels and Etap Hotels.

Nintendo’s own Managing Director of European Marketing & PR, Laurent Fischer says: “With such an extensive European-wide Wi-Fi access network, partnering with free-hotspot.com made absolute sense. The access points are largely located in popular restaurants and hotels – places where Nintendo 3DS owners are likely to want, and to unwind in. We also urge all Nintendo 3DS owners to also take advantage of the latest system update which has brought an array of new features and enhancements, including 3D video capture.”

Joseph Brunoli, the Managing Director of Anacapa Holdings, Ltd., which operators of the free-hotspot.com network, added: "Our extensive network of Wi-Fi hotspots across Europe will provide Nintendo 3DS users with a high speed, reliable service to help them make the most of their time while away from home. We are delighted to work with Nintendo and to announce this important partnership.”  

All of these free hotspots across Europe will hopefully add to the amount of playtime European’s dedicate to Nintendo’s latest handheld. We can only hope that Nintendo will continue this trend and partner with more free Wi-Fi hotspot providers in North America to bring even more coverage here. Without a dedicated 3G connection in the device, this is the only solution Nintendo has to get more 3DS users connected while on the go.

Source: Nintendo

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