Most restaurants in Europe freely give out Wi-Fi too lmfao

The connectivity in Europe in my experience is just as good if not slightly worse than what we have in NYC. I don't think you know what you're talking about.

What cities are these? Because I just use it at restaurants when in europe

Ubiquitous free public Wi-fi? Where? That doesn’t make any sense, no one would have a data plan.

It’s not really a problem of technology or infrastructure. It’s the fact that in places where it’s more common to see budget, short-stay international travel, like Europe and SE Asia, businesses are equipped to accommodate people without data plans.

In America most citizens either don’t travel outside the country, or travel on a higher budget, so there’s not the same culture at home.

no they don't lmao. Europe is a whole ass continent with 700 million people, not a fantasy land where the streets are paved with social surfaces and infrastructure flows out of every fountain. grow up

>It’s because Wi-Fi is freely available in their cities. It’s so ubiquitous it’s not considered that America, what is supposed to be a leading nation, doesn’t have public Wi-Fi that is easily available and reliable.

Yeah that's not true. If anything the US has lot more available free wifi.

You can't even use bathrooms without being a paying customer in a lot of Europe

Maybe in a few cities but city-wide free WiFi is quite rare in my experience and more often than not you just hop on a restaurant or Starbucks WiFi whenever I am in Europe.

But WiFi is so ubiquitous largely because cellular coverage is either terrible (in the case of the UK), expensive, or both (e.g Germany). Set one foot inside a building and I hope you enjoy 2G/EDGE (if you’re lucky) or no service at all.

Most US cities have good cellular coverage regardless of which network you choose, and pricing is reasonably competitive. Therefore, in my opinion the need for free WiFi just isn’t really there.