Gossip

All England goes wireless at Wimbledon, with 3G and WiFi

Well, that's the official Wimbledon Tennis word. ReadytoSurf is doing the Wifi, and "3" is doing the 3G. What you should ask is why there's no mention of NewsWireless.Net's sterling contribution to the party.

It was a brilliant idea of Hutchison's "3" phone provider to do a little promotion of its newest LG phones at Wimbledon. And it was equally stellar of Broadreach Networks to provide a showcase of its new easy sign-on for the wealthy hospitality box inhabitants from merchant banker land.

What they won't tell you, at "3" is that it nearly all went pear-shaped. Someone had this idea of demonstrating sports clips to guests.

Of course, you can ask: "Why on earth would someone who is actually at Wimbledon want to watch clips of Wimbledon on a two-inch screen?" but that's for academics to debate in future years. Where it got amusing, was when on Friday, they collected all their spare phones, and discovered that they'd lent them all to journalists for evaluation. No phones! HELP!

A man on a motor-cycle arrived to collect ours. Hopefully, he had time to get it on a charger - ours had a totally virgin battery, and it takes 24 hours to get it up to full whack.

No freebies from Broadreach, however: paidfor only.. but what they don't tell you, until you get there, is that they're now wombats. Yes, Broadreach Networks now redirects to Wombatelecom.com something I'd keep quiet too! Also, it doesn't work ... instead, go to ReadyToSurf.com where all is rather more carefully revealed.

It is demonstrating its new, two-click "easy sign on" - which I have to say, is great. But it really only works if you're paying. Well, it's cheap! and maybe they'll organise repayment vouchers?

And again, you have to ask: what is someone at a tennis tournament doing with a PC on their lap? Are they just another re-incarnation of Agrajag in non-petunia form?