Quality of Mersey is actually strained - for mobile broadband connection outside the city

 Unlike some train lines in the UK, Virgin Trains does not as yet provide an in-seat WiFi service such as that patronised by fellow CW blogger Steve Broadhead  on his sojourns from London to Leeds to watch regularly the footballing equivalent of Gabriel Garcia's Marquez's two bald men fighting over a comb.

Not wanting to rain on the mobile broadband parade of our Toby Tyke too much but some years back T-Mobile had launched, and some say perfected, the concept on train Wi-Fi on the Brighton to London line (note priority) giving south costal mobile workers the chance to do something really important in the hour --and rather picturesque Sussex and Surrey countryside and Gatwick airport--between stable 3G zones.

And sadly its the same on the Liverpool, and by extension Manchester, as the train heaves on, in it's famous son's words, to Euston and even the rather good HSDPA service that 3 provides via its similarly rather good mobile dongle vanishes as the banks of the Mersey give way to Runcorn only to appear again 20ish frustrating minutes later around Crewe and then around Stafford, Rugby and all points south of Watford.

 Even though this instils upon one a sense of off line discipline it is frustrating to think of what could be achieved given full online service.

 And brought into relief by the recent Vodafone/O2 network merger. The two companies say that they will improve broadband coverage but to what extent? Would it be better to cover 80% of the geography of the UK rather than 90% of the population who in any case would have excellent O2 or Vodafone reach anyway?

To paraphrase Portia from the Merchant of Venice, as at our headline, I'm not realistically expecting mobile broadband to droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath--especially given for me that would be somewhere in the less populated bits of Herts, Bucks, Northants, Staffs and Cheshire--but ensuring a business class mobile broadband service between the country's major cities doesn't seem that much to ask in the year of our Lord 2009. Such a thing would blesseth him that gives and him that takes: and make operators take not a pound of flesh but pounds of money from those who'd be very willing to pay for it.