Wi-Fi in the real world

I reported in The Register on the realities of using WiFi in London. It is based on my itinerant activity during BT OpenZone's recent Wireless Broadband week. I conclude that "it's time to go beyond our shock that this technology works at all, and get practical about how we can make it truly available and really facilitate its use".

Comments

[Matthias Spielkamp]

That was an interesting read. Although I have to add that yes, the Swisscom service does tell you where the next hotspot is - but it might be not just too far away but also not very accessible. They have, for example, 22 hotspots in Zurich. That's not a lot in the first place. But on top of that, they are exclusively located in places like "Hotel Savoy Baur en Ville Zürich" - the name alone tells you you'll be paying 3 Euros for a cup of coffee - without milk, that is. So one needs to add that to the steep price of the prepaid cards.

[Don Craig]

You didn't get to Paddington Station in your exploration of London Hotspots. If you sit to the west side of the food court area, beside the bronze of Paddington Bear, there's a fine free WiFi Hotspot. The rest of Paddington and the accompanying Hilton has 10 or so Swisscom ones. Mind you, Railtrack will throw you out of the Paddington foodcourt around 11:50pm, and won't let you back in until 5:30am or so. On a Friday evening there's the Great Western Railway band out on the platform, and as the Mad Bishop & Bear closes there's an assortment of besotted English wits and mobile-toting Russian hookers.

[Peter Garner]

Good article, and I had a similar experience. My choice of hotspot was limited to one as I live in a small market town in Hamphsire, but fortunately the hotspot was located in the new pub in town. The signal was well hidden and could only be used right at the back of the pub - well away from punters that just come in to drink (!) The biggest problem I found was that the staff had no idea it existed. If businesses are hoping to make money of providing this service they will need to educate their staff, especially when hotspots become more widespread.. Nevertheless, once I found the signal it worked very well for me. Ironically, it worked so well for me that I am now considering winding down my WAP/WML development and concentrating on WiFi-centric applications. My next purchase therefore will undoubtedly be a more WiFi-capable PDA as opposed to a 3G mobile handset.

[Nico Macdonald]

Wall Street Journal writer Jeremy Wagstaff presents a thoughtful reflection on JiWire's research on the top WiFi countries and cities. While London in particular, and the UK in general, come out well, the key issues I considered in The Register article are not factored in. Usability and quality of experience are as important as formal availability of WiFi. And even at a practical level, formal availability is also negated by high prices and lack of roaming agreements. I am pleased to say that there have been some significant developments in these areas, which I will write about in due course.

There was an interesting, if rather oddly couched, discussion of 'The Wi-Fi Office' in Nice Work (BBC Radio 4 Tuesday 29 March 2005) with discussants inlcuding Philip Ross, Cordless Group; James Woudhuysen, Professor of Forecasing and Innovation, De Montfort University; Ian Keene, Gartner; and Jim Baker, Telabria. Woudhuysen noted that the discussion around mobile working tending to focus on how we work, but not what we are creating, or our efficiency. The second part of show attempted to graft on a discussion on 'Knowledge Management'. The show should be permanently available in Real audio.

On 14 April 2005 I will be on a panel entitled 'Whither Wi-Fi' with Woudhuysen, programmed by spiked-IT, which takes place at the RSA in London. Other panelists are: Piers Bearne, managing director, Rock Media; and Pierre Trudeau, co-founder and chief technology officer, Colubris Networks. There is no charge to attend. Further information and booking details can be found on the spiked-IT events page. Further information on this panel.