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WiFi Alliance: does it really want to hear about dud and incompatible devices?

It's another GSMA "world mobile" conference and one thing doesn't change - the wireless LAN doesn't work properly. So I was a bit nervous about meeting Karen Hanley, the WiFi Alliance's senior director in charge of marketing and membership, because one hardly wants to start a snarling session, when she should be doing PR.

OK, I'll admit, getting the WiFi to work properly in a big building like this with so very many other wireless signals in the air is a challenge. But I've been grousing about the GSMA provision of connectivity for five years, and if you'd asked me, five years ago, whether I thought I'd still be doing this in 2008, I'd have probably said "no, I guess not; it'll be solved."

It isn't.

It's not the only thing that isn't solved, sadly. I talk to a lot of wireless installers, and they are often very scornful of the state of the art. I could quote them, but a lot of the technical terms they use sound very like rude Anglo-Saxon, and it wouldn't be "office safe" to read them out.

I also know people who buy WiFi and make it work. The problem is, how many share the experience of my expert friends (and the installer of the MWC WLAN) of finding it hard to connect to all users?

Here's part of the answer: "We have talked about compatibility with a couple of our large consumer brands. If support network gets a call and the user can't confirm that it's a certified device attaching, they won't take the call."

The Alliance does much that is valuable, and I'm not trying to make them sound incompetent; but I am a little worried about the public attitude which says: "There's nothing wrong." To quote Karen Hanley herself when I suggested there are problems: "If you have more specific examples, it would be helpful."

My suspicion is that if the providers dodge the issue by saying "Prove it's a certified device!" and hanging up if the user isn't sure, then Karen Hanley won't hear any bad news she doesn't want to hear.

But if you do install wireless networks, and if you have experienced any incompatibility issues between different (certified!) WiFi devices, it would be worth asking you to provide these "specific examples" - just one or two from each irritated reader would be a start.

There were other things to talk about, but they're all on a WiFi Alliance giveaway - a nice little USB stick with the latest announcements on it.

It's a dud. Sad, really...