Eventually as the train began to move she decided to finish her conversation thus:

“Ok the train is moving now so shall we talk later? I’ll get cut off in a moment…”

Isn’t that shocking?

Her mobile network is so pants that she is automatically working around it.

On reflection I suppose this is good news. Train journeys for me seem to be quieter now that — obviously — everyone’s network appears to be incapable of maintaining voice calls at more than 25mph.

It’s a sad reflection on the capabilities of our mobile networks that the most basic service of voice doesn’t work on many train journeys.

I’ve begun relying on text messages again because they don’t need the standard data connection to commence, open, deliver etc. They just get sent provided there’s a network operator call sign showing on your phone.

Shit. Shit and thrice shit.

Mind you the lady was talking on an iPhone 4 — *without a bumper* — so that won’t help.

Did anyone else notice the Apple iPhone 4 reference in last nigh’s Top Gear episode? When Jeremy Clarkson was introducing The Stig, he started with…

“Some say.. if you hold him in the wrong way, he doesn’t work properly…”

Cutting!

Unfortunately for Apple, the antenna issue has most definitely entered the mainstream consciousness in a negative manner. The apparent failure of the antenna, along with the company’s uncharacteristically inept handling of the supposed Jobs response (“hold it a different way”), has been an absolute boon to other mobile manufacturers.

I wonder if Apple haven’t overreached with the iPhone 4. I remember the audience response when Jobs explained that the whole outer shell section was the antenna. Folk reacted with nothing short of wonder. But if you have to go and buy a stupid piece of plastic so you can use it properly — for one of it’s basic functions — that’s ridiculous.

Whatever you might think about Nokia or Symbian, I am pretty sure that there will never, ever come a time when their respective CEOs have to publish a letter along the lines of, ‘woops, we… goodness me, we’re stunned, we discovered a coding error in how we display the signal strength indicators… sorry’.

When Clarkson is inserting iPhone ribbing jokes into the show — which regularly reaches upwards of 350m viewers a week — that is bad news for the brand.

Unfortunately he couldn’t really get much signal, until he climbed up a hill, with his injuries.

Link: B.C. plane crash survivor had to climb hill to get text messages out

It was Pomponio who was text messaging a friend about where the plane went down. The friend relayed the information to rescue crews, but it took several hours for them to find the site of the crash.

Pomponio told Young he had to climb a hillside to get a signal.

And, Young said, Pomponio wasn’t too thrilled with Telus for sending him two advertising text messages while he was trying to get help.

Oh dear. Ohhhh dear. Yet somehow they got through eh?

And the stickler, if it has been a bit later in the month, he would have gotten charged for the incoming messages!