Not only is it tedious, but it's rather confused. In one paragraph he'll talk about "signing up for wifi", in the next he'll talk about public hotspots, and then he says something about paying "45 pounds a month".

Surely in the midst of all that stodgy writing it would be simple enough to say "some places offer this service for free, in others you need to subscribe to a particular provider"?

→ Posted by: James at January 17, 2005 2:49 PM

Tedious, confused, and also perhaps just a little bit late? Bill seems to think he's been "living in the future" for the past few weeks, when surely, the majority of internet users have at least heard of WiFi if not got it themselves.

It smacks a bit of "Hey! Look what cool thing I discovered!" and demands the reply "Yeah Bill, we knew about that two years ago"

→ Posted by: Siobhan at January 17, 2005 3:24 PM

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm currently paying BT less than £2/month for 500 mins of wi-fi a month, with roaming. Bill's been stung!

→ Posted by: Aaron at January 17, 2005 3:35 PM

And could Bill be one of the least photogenic people working for the BBC? What's he trying to achieve with that look? Tom Baker carried it off as Doctor Who, but really it doesn't work as a sequel.

→ Posted by: Aegir at January 17, 2005 3:48 PM

You know, I hadn't even followed your link and I knew it was a piece by Bill Thompson.

→ Posted by: Matt at January 17, 2005 5:26 PM

I'm continually amazed as to why the BBC pay this man good money to write such inane drivel.

Only two weeks ago, he produced an article about how much he hates the web over at Open Democracy.

In fact, if you have any sense, you will stop yourself reading this rubbish - if enough of us do the same, his stats will drop, and they'll ditch him.

→ Posted by: Martin at January 17, 2005 6:52 PM

I really can't tell I stopped reading after one paragraph^^

→ Posted by: Llan at January 19, 2005 10:28 AM