London Metropolis is a wi fi desert

NO DOUBT you remember the INQ took a trip from the Agora Hotel to the Taipei World Trade Center last year and Net Stumbler just woudn't stop beeping. It was a journey of about four miles.

See Taiwan wi-fi hot spots everywhere and nowhere baby.

By now you would think that London, a so-called candidate for the 2012 Olympics, and considerably larger than Old Taipei, would have got its act in order but we can now reveal that London is a wireless network desert. Drier than the deserts of Rajasthan in a drought. And that is dry. And that is London.

Conservative estimates have it that the distance between central London and Harrow is about 14 miles. But Net Stumbler hardly raised even a whimper between the Soho Hotel and Harrow.

Look at the Net Stumbler stats. Travelling between Soho and Harrow on the Metropolitan Line today, Net Stumbler revealed no wireless networks, even when the tube train slowed down and speeded up.

Not even one lone wi fi station. Sob. Perhaps there is something wrong with Tôny Blair's vision of London as an IT capital.

When we got back home, courtesy of the black cab drivers, Net Stumbler started beeping like there was no tomorrow. In many ways, London as a metropolitan centre is really, really backward, we conclude. Roll on Sean Maloney, Easynet and WiMAX.