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Rory Cellan-Jones

Only connect....

  • Rory Cellan-Jones
  • 22 Jan 08, 17:00 GMT

I鈥檓 writing this on a train between Nottingham and London 鈥 but getting it online from here is going to be too much of a struggle. I set off this morning on a quest to try and be connected wherever I went 鈥 and found it harder than you might imagine in 21st Century always - on Britain.

I left home 鈥 and my 2mb broadband connection 鈥 armed with a laptop, a Blackberry and an iPhone, confident that I had every base covered.

St Pancras station.jpgOn the tube, I was obviously offline 鈥 but surely at the sparkling new St Pancras International station, wi-fi would be everywhere? But the fact that the ticket office was closed because of a 鈥渟oftware problem鈥 didn鈥檛 bode well. My iPhone detected something called 鈥淔ree Public wi-fi鈥 but didn鈥檛 seem to like the look of it, so I hopped on the Nottingham train in search of something better.

A few train services now have on-board wi-fi 鈥 this wasn鈥檛 one of them 鈥 and the EDGE network which serves the iPhone seems to evaporate just north of Watford. No problem 鈥 I鈥檝e got a USB modem giving my laptop a 3g mobile broadband connection. I plugged it in and got the rather discouraging message 鈥渢he selected communications device does not exist.鈥

Error messageWhen, after a certain amount of cursing and fiddling, I eventually got the laptop online it was hardly worth the bother. It took about three minutes to load the 大象传媒 homepage, and then choked and gave up. Having enviously watched all those businessmen with similar devices furiously tapping away on trains, I鈥檓 now convinced they are just playing Tetris.

My iPhone was still refusing to go online and meet my desire to check what was happening on world stock markets, but my Blackberry, with its modest GPRS connection was at least delivering me emails about the dramas on the markets.

Nottingham Trent UniversityMy destination was the Computing and Informatics Building at Nottingham Trent University 鈥 surely here of all places I would be able to get online at lightning speed? Not a chance. Once inside, neither my laptop nor my iPhone could spot a trace of wi-fi. Apparently there is a network right through the building and across the campus 鈥 but you cannot even detect it unless you are a bona fide student who has signed up to the university鈥檚 conditions of service.

Nottingham Trent University student bar Frustrated beyond measure, I headed for the student union bar 鈥 and suddenly found myself in wi-fi heaven. My phone locked on to a wi-fi hotspot operated by The Cloud, which provides free access for iPhone customers (once they鈥檝e signed up to O2鈥檚 hefty monthly subscription). For a few brief minutes, I emailed, sent photos, and learned more than I needed to know about the nervous breakdown unfolding on the stock exchange.

Then it was back on the train and into the internet dead-zone again. All day, my most effective communication device had been the one which relies on the slowest network, my Blackberry. Which makes you wonder when the billions being invested in HSDPA, wi-fi, and eventually Wimax networks are finally going to make an impact on the way we connect.

Comments

fantastic blog mate, i fully agree with you. we keep hearing about wifi being accesible everywhere but at the moment that is far from the truth.

I too rely on GPRS, I use gmail mobile an awful lot, but wifi outside of my house doesnt exist, unless I am on one of the new National Express trains, which are wonderful!

Guy

Wi-fi has a long way to go - your right about that. At the moment my Nokia E61 is running on a 3G Network although it can pick up wi-fi, it's faster than a Blackburry and much cheaper as it is only a conventional contract with bolt-on unlimited online browsing time as appose to a more expensive blackberry contract.

I think that the Nokia E series running on 3G networks are the unsung heros of the mobile internet market - they are the most cost effective solution until the iPhone goes 3G and more importantly comes down in price!

  • 4.
  • At 09:29 PM on 22 Jan 2008,
  • Matt Warren wrote:

Free public wifi isn't really a real network, it's a actually an ad-hoc network from another PC and it's caused by a bug in Windows XP. See for mode details.

So it's a good job you didn't connect to it, you could've infected the whole of the beeb ;-)

  • 5.
  • At 09:31 PM on 22 Jan 2008,
  • J Heyes wrote:

I have experienced similar problems, often when you can actually find a wifi connection, it is chargeable. I am a computer science at Liverpool Uni, we don't have a wifi connection in our department, though much of the campus does. Roll on universal free wifi, yah that'll happen

  • 6.
  • At 11:46 PM on 22 Jan 2008,
  • andrew wrote:

kismet
and
netstumbler
do wonder's for detecting hidden wireless network's connecting to them is anther problem

  • 7.
  • At 07:41 AM on 23 Jan 2008,
  • G Ling wrote:

Funnily enough, the 'free wifi' you found in st pancras is actually from a eurostar train. Coming back from Brussels the other week it gave me a full wifi signal throughout the entire trip. The downside is that although the network is there, it isn't connected to the internet!

3G dongles and the iPhone are still in their infancy I'm afraid. The consequence being that, as you found, connectivity isn't always amazing. Instead try using a well developed 3G phone connected to a large network such as O2's or Vodafones and you'll notice a huge improvement in many locations. That most phones will work as modems makes life even better...

On the tube, I was obviously offline

That's less obvious to Parisians - the Paris Metro seems to have cell phone coverage.

Good article though. One of the guys I worked with a few years ago commuted from London to Cambridge, and you could spot when he was on the train as the printer started whirring out papers he'd been sent by email as he processed his mail on the train :) So clearly some places are better than others.

  • 10.
  • At 08:58 AM on 23 Jan 2008,
  • wrote:

I'm based out in Baku currently and out here they have what they call "I-Burst" wireless technology which although around 拢150 for the modem is relatively cheap (~拢23) for a 2 gigabit traffic limit and 1MB download speed. It claims to work when travelling at speeds of upto 100km/h. The coverage admittedly is difficult in certain places but most of the time its possible to get connected and 100% signal. Maybe this is something that could be looked into in the UK

  • 11.
  • At 11:18 AM on 23 Jan 2008,
  • Nicholas A wrote:

Never mind EDGE, 3G, GPRS etc. What about humble GSM mobile phone connectivity? There remain significant holes in the coverage of the major networks (for example - there is a huge deadspot in Hampstead on the Vodafone network - right at the highest point in London, where you would have thought you should get a decent signal). My USB 3G dongle is pretty useless - I can't get a decent connection when I really need to use it - it only works reliably when I am in locations where I can plug my laptop in to a wired connection anyway!

  • 12.
  • At 11:35 AM on 23 Jan 2008,
  • Sachin wrote:

Couldn't agree with you more. It shows that the UK is well behind in technology deployment. I am from Mauritius and we launched 3G 6 months before it was licensed here. Fixed WiMAX is already deployed in the country and they are now looking into trying mobile WiMAX as soon as it becomes available. We have been using technology called VDSL since 2004 to provide 55 Mbps throughput on cat3 copper wires. VDSL is not even used here. All this from a small island in the Indian Ocean with GDP of $16 Billion (2006) compared to Uk's $2.27 Trillion....

  • 13.
  • At 07:11 PM on 23 Jan 2008,
  • UM wrote:

Once or twice a year my ADSL connection goes down. Those few precious moments without Internet access are the most liberating times I've had in the last few years.

As for your train journey, leave the office behind for a few hours. Switch off. Relax. Enjoy the ride, watch the rain. Read a book that you always wanted to read but you didn't have time to read.

  • 14.
  • At 12:19 PM on 24 Jan 2008,
  • john wrote:

Beware the 'Free wifi' networks, these are often Ad-hoc mode connections with either a live cracker actively trolling for victims, or is compromised machine that's part of a botnet looking to infect you too. Of course, it helps if you don't run Windows, or use the iPhone which seems is smart enough to avoid them :-)

I've just returned from a holiday in the south of France, where the ideal of ubiquitous free internet seems in better shape than here, most hotels and cafes had free open wifi on offer no matter how small. Compare that to the major chain London hotel I stayed at the other night where they wanted 拢3 per 15 minutes! I think it says something about the cultural differences that places like France and Spain see the value of shared community resources, whereas in the UK we just see a chance to make money.

  • 15.
  • At 07:06 AM on 25 Jan 2008,
  • Musrat wrote:

Our Country Bangladesh now coonected mobile sucribers facilites GPRS & EDGE technology used Internet world any where on his Laptop Or desktop. there no any tower or Moblie Base station. And we will be interduce Wi-Max Tecnology very soon at rural area there is no mobile Frequency.Wi-Max technology coverage all area.so we are not behind the Intenet World . Give me your comments about Wi-MaX Technology...

Musrat Hasan Khan
Logisticks & IT Support
British American Tobacco Bangladesh.

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