Wha? Guy Complains Because There Is No WiFi Below The Earth In London

We have a boatload of complaints to offer about places where there should be WiFi, and there is not. Geez, there are still many airports that haven't got a clue. Yet the stupidest complaint about bad WiFi coverage has to come from this chap who titled his article: "London Metropolis is a wi fi desert". One would think that the writer had tested and visited many locations in London, and found it lacking in hotspots. Yet, what he really did was take a train ride --underground-- and was surprised that Netstumbler (a WiFi detection tool) found no signals. Well, duh!!! The only signal that you will get in the London Underground is one that originates in the tube tunnel. No signals will pass through 30ft. or more of dirt to the surface. I, too, would like to see subway systems that are WiFi-enabled, but this would be a system-wide program managed by the organization that runs the tube. The experiment is like going to my grandfather's house in Toronto, finding no WiFi signal, and concluding that "Canada is a WiFi Desert". It's ridiculous to offer a condemnation of the WiFi in Greater London just because the Tube isn't lit. The author then contradicts his entire article by saying that when he returned from his single tube ride in a taxi, there were hotspots all over. Wrapping up the article with an affirmation of cluelessness, the author goes on to say, "Roll on Sean Maloney, Easynet and WiMAX." As if Sean Maloney (of Intel) and WiMAX are going to put up networks that somehow penetrate 10m of earth, when current pre-WiMAX solutions require line-of-sight.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Skippy, 27 Apr 2005 @ 2:22pm

    nice try but......

    The majority of the Metropolitan tube line is actually overground. I imagine his route was probably 80% above surface. In fact, its a common misconception that the London tube is a total underground service.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.