I’m getting increasingly irritated with these messages. (Note the signal level in the pictures at the end of this post.)

I live and work in central London, where you would expect a good mobile signal. Yet there are holes in the service all over the place.

We’ve got the devices that can make the mobile web a reality. We’ve got the online services like RSS readers, Twitter and Facebook that make it sticky- something you can dip into when you’ve got five minutes, and will come back to again.

Provided it works.

The weakest link is the networks. All we need them to do is provide network coverage and carry the data. But they seem to be too busy trying to differentiating themselves with services that are tangential to what we pay our bills for.

So right now, while I would like to say that I am my network of Twitterers, my Facebook friends and my favourite RSS feeds, I’m actually just a bloke on a bus playing with an electronic notepad.

How about someone differentiate themselves by providing the best coverage, the most consistent 3G data connection, or the greatest consumer satisfaction? Stop trying to differentiate your service by providing extras, and just provide the basic service that you promised; an Internet connection that’s always on, and 3G that actually has coverage?

Give me the mobile Internet coverage that I’m already paying for- then start worrying about how you’re going to sell all my web-surfing data on to the GSMA. Otherwise, an iPod Touch for a quarter of the total cost of an iPhone will do the job just as well.

(Oh, and while you’re at it, can you get the BT Openzone wifi hotspots to recognize my phone again? After all, that was a part of the deal too. Ta.)

Posted from my home wifi connection which- I believe- is not being recorded for the data to be sold on without my consent.