Literal eu law that says they can't charge roaming?

This seems a bit wasteful. Everyone already has a phone with network connection, most having infinite data, and statistics are rapidly improving. I don't remember the last time I had to use public wifi, feels a bit outdated and insecure.

Well I don't know if that's a good use of EU money. I'd rather see investments in large and difficult infrastructure, rail, software, datacenters, industrial sectors we're currently lacking, grid investments - stuff like that.

End user internet access is more like thousands of small decentralised projects. The coordination might make it easier to use compared to if everyone did their own free wifi project, but that's such a small benefit...

Classic European flavored racism. Are you aware that you are promoting racism or not? I think mindfulness is key here. People should consider their own internal biases and adjust to help make a better world.

most having infinite data

That's a bold claim. Do you have some official figures to back that up?
Where I live, I don't know of anyone with truly unlimited mobile internet.

The cheaper unlimited tariffs cost around €30, but have at least one of the following restrictions:

• Speed limit after x volume used
• Poor network coverage
• <15MBit/s speed
• Significantly increased costs after 2 years of contract term
• Cancellation by provider if consumption is too high
• only a few Gb at full speed included in EU roaming

Genuine unlimited contracts with stable network coverage and 300 Mbit/s usually cost around €80-100 per month here. And unlimited EU roaming is still not included by default.

But why an App & not a PWA ?

So, if I live in the EU, what's stopping me from cancelling my home plan and making the wifi experience worse for everyone?

If I had this in the US, I'd be cancelling my cellular service entirely, I'd still keep my home service though, to VPN into it for a bit more security when using a public wifi connection.

I would also just transfer my phone number to one of those cheap voip providers, then just use voip from my phone everywhere.

What's the problem with the Digital Services Act?

You don't have to trust them any more than you trust your local Starbucks WiFi. We're at the point where your traffic should no longer be vulnerable just because you're on the wrong WiFi network.

Been that way since https became common

Ehhh... I would maybe cancel the data part of my plan, but I dunno how comfortable I would be relying on notoriously spotty and insecure public Wi-Fi services to make or receive phone calls.

If I had this in the US, I'd be cancelling my cellular service entirely, I'd still keep my home service though, to VPN into it for a bit more security when using a public wifi connection.

I would also just transfer my phone number to one of those cheap voip providers, then just use voip from my phone everywhere.

As always, it's not like both aren't possible. As a matter of fact, there is a lot of railway projects ongoing at the same time, to only quote one of your examples.

A government can take care of more than one issue at a time, luckily.

It may be a small benefit for you (I assume you are german based on your server), but not every european country or citizen has the same access to internet. This is a good initiative, but obviously not primarily intended for the richer citizens/countries of the union.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/25779751

The intative promises to be privacy-friendly with no tracking. Stating:

Your privacy is important. The WiFi4EU app ensures a private online experience with no tracking or data collection. Simply connect and enjoy free public Wi-Fi without concerns.

Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/wifi4eu-citizens

Will be interesting to see how this spans and plays out in reality. Looks promising too, did a quick scan of their builtin permissions and trackers and looks good too. (Scanning tool is called Exodus)

They tried to push it to the point of stripping encryption from internet altogether and when that didn't work they tried demanding chat apps to be able to scan people messages before they send them. Maybe I'm confusing multiple entirely different things here, but I kinda heard that mostly with the abbreviation DSA flying around so I assumed it was sorta umbrella for all those things.

You don't have to trust them any more than you trust your local Starbucks WiFi

I don't really trust that either

Why not both?

Title is wrong. It's an old initiative, not even funded anymore. Ran from 2018 to 2020 with 120 Million EUR.

But why an App & not a PWA ?