Embodiments relate to systems and methods for enabling stations to connect to wireless hotspots using non-Unicode service set identification information. A WiFi™ wireless router or other access point can broadcast beacon information to smart phones or other stations within wireless range of that device. In existing access point implementations, the character set in which the access point broadcasts this information, including a service set identification indicating the connection services available from the access point, are assumed to be encoded in Unicode format, specifically, UTF-8 format. While English-language options are properly displayed, character sets and/or languages which are not encoded in Unicode (UTF-8) format are translated into unintelligible characters using this approach. According to embodiments, access point hardware can be configured to broadcast the type of character set encoding in the beacon information itself, for instance, in existing SSID information elements, vendor-specific information elements, and/or other locations in the beacon data.