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Symbian forgets about wireless?

There were red faces at the Excel exhibition centre today, when Symbian organisers were asked "Why is there no wireless Internet access here?"

The question was an embarrassing one, because there was. The Excel Centre is in many ways as modern as you'd expect from an exhibition centre which is miles away from anything except London City Airport - it is fully WLAN equipped.

Whereas, last week, Microsoft had to install WLAN hotspots all over the ghastly Hilton Metropole in Paddington, with Compaq's enthusiastic assistance, Symbian didn't have to do a thing except ask Excel for the proxy address, and ask them to enable Internet services through ports that carry Telnet and FTP and mail.

Since the trick was as simple as asking, the Newswireless Net asked, and got Internet access there and then. So (we queried innocently) why didn't Symbian? After all, Symbian is a world-leading wireless technology pioneer, isn't it?

Last week, Microsoft had Jornada handheld PDAs equipped with WiFi cards for every delegate; and you had interesting things like "find a buddy" software. OK, the software was pants, but it worked. Well, OK, it worked for one buddy, then you had to reset the PocketPC, but heck! And you could surf the web, and you could post news stories right from the middle of the conference session, and you could even join in IRC rooms or Yahoo Messenger groups, and discuss the speaker live.

So we asked if we could have a comment on why Symbian decided to eschew such facilities.

We're waiting ...