Kindle = Free Internet Access

Recently I bought a Kindle 3G. I am living in Switzerland and I bought it from Amazon.com.

Amazon offers free internet access with this device over the cellular network. Everywhere, globally. The goal is that you can access the Kindle shop and buy books everywhere on the world.

The Kindle has also a built in web browser that you can use to access the internet.
Now the question is: Can you browse the internet for free everywhere on the world with your Kindle?
This is not completely clear from Amazons product description and there are different contradicting reports floating on the internet. To help to clarify the topic here my experience:

Last month I was in Norway, Singapore, Bali and Lombok and everywhere I could access the internet for free without a problem. It was not always a 3G connection, it worked also over EDGE and GPRS.

Of course the browser experience on the Kindle is not comparable with other mobile devices: It is quite slow and cursor navigation has to be done with the cursor buttons. Also typing on the kindle keyboard is quite cumbersome.

Nevertheless I think this is an invaluable feature of the Kindle!

I was primary using Gmail, Google Reader and Twitter. Through their mobile interfaces those sites are definitely usable on the Kindle and this was a comfortable (and cheap) way to stay at least minimally connected throughout my vacation.

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