
Living in the Hamptons, we have all just accepted as a community that our cell phones aren’t going to work unless we are connected to a Wi-Fi service at our house. Some of us, like myself, literally now include “Wi-Fi Signal” as part of their going out to a restaurant decision. “Honey, do you want to go to X restaurant for lunch today?”
“Absolutely not. They have terrible Wi-Fi there.”
Going to the beach, however, is now a different story, and it is all thanks to the Hamptons.com Free Wi-Fi service that exists at the major beaches in the Hamptons.
Now that I have a toddler running around, my beach of choice is Long Beach in Sag Harbor for a variety of reasons. The first is that it is a bay beach, so I don’t worry about my two-year-old getting swept out to sea in a rip current. The second is that the parking is right on the beach, so I don’t have to walk very far to my spot to set up with all of my stuff. And the third reason, and it is rapidly turning into the first reason, is because the Hamptons.com Free Wi-Fi setup there is remarkably fast and remarkably reliable.
Now you purists out there who feel that the beach is a place where cell phones aren’t supposed to work and you’re supposed to go there with a book or a magazine to read just have to get over it. Having Wi-Fi at the beach has turned into a complete luxury for me, primarily because I can scroll through my Instagram and text all of my friends that I’m at the beach. But another reason that I really love having Wi-Fi at the beach is that I can now watch an entire movie while sitting in my beach chair. Oddly, my favorite movie to watch these days is “Endless Summer.”
I also enjoy the comfort of knowing my cell phone will actually ring if there is an emergency and that I can make a phone call in the event of an emergency. You know, something that the rest of the world enjoys — even war zones these days have cell service. Look it up.
I find it really sad that our local officials and community will not address the cell phone problem in the Hamptons, but I’m thankful that our little local website, Hamptons.com has found a solution, at least for the beach anyway.