Free Internet access lures Poles to Germany

Berlin, Jan 6: Germans cross the border by the thousand to Poland to buy cheap petrol and cigarettes but bargain hunting is not all one way as Polish students take advantage of free Internet access in Germany.

Turning German prejudices on their head that everything in Poland is cheaper, students from the Polish city of Slubice are crossing the Oder River to Frankfurt to cut Internet costs.

''About 100 students from our Collegium Polonicum have been walking with their laptops under their arms for about 20 minutes over to Germany to do Internet research or read emails,'' the university's spokeswoman Ewa Bielewicz-Polakowska told Reuters.

The local Polish provider charges between 89 zlotys (30 dollar) and 153 (51 dollar) a month, which equals almost half students' rent, while their partner university Viadrina in Frankfurt offers free access, Bielewicz-Polakowska said yesterday.

REUTERS