• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, November 2, 2010

It is amazing how quickly you get spoiled by the expectation of ubiquitous on-demand video. When it is taken away, the void is palpable.

We keep hearing that broadband coverage either through WiFi, direct connection or wireless 3G/4G is going to be as common as water fountains and power outlets. The CEO of Sprint mentioned recently that the sales of iPads have goosed the market for his shared wireless broadband product.

My own cable ISP, Comcast wanted to let me know that their own Xfinity WiFi network has expanded to a host of hot spots in my neighborhood. And, indeed, it is convenient (and about time) that I can use my Comcast login to plug into a hot spot that carries the Xfinity brand, even if I still don't understand the difference between Comcast and Xfinity.

In a perfect triple-play, quadruple-play, quintuple-play world, wouldn't it be great to move seamlessly across wired, WiFi, 3G/4G networks using a single account? Then the dream of TC or video everywhere might be realized. But not yet. Not by a long shot.

I am writing this from the heart of Times Square, where the sides of buildings are video screens. And yet I can't access the video I want, that I am used to. The sad journey started at home in Delaware when I boarded the Acela train to the city with the expectation of WiFi.

Psych!

There are signs everywhere in the Wilmington train terminal touting WiFi on-board. For workaholics like me being connected throughout the trip is an important Acela selling point. But in reality, the performance on these trains is pathetic and often unusable. Trying to check out the four or five video topics I had to choose from to write about today was impossible because the signal barely could pull down a text-heavy site let along a video feed.

Let's wait until we get to the hotel, where the usual $12.95 a night hosing for Internet access is sure to be better than this. Guess again, video boy. Crawling all day. Was able to steal about 1 minute of a PBS.org Kids video. But wait broadband sufferer, I think to myself, you are in Times Square. Don't at least three or four providers like CBS and other have free service in these parts? Maybe so, but not so that it reaches 20 floors up.

Ever-resourceful, and always weighed down with technology, I opt for 3G because after all I have that wondrous iPhone running on that most advanced of wireless networks AT&T.

Doh!

Actually, truth be told, I have not had the same gripes with AT&T voice or data service as others. I actually had had more dead spots with the Verizon devices I have tested. In fact, even in iPhone-cluttered mid-Manhattan the iPhone performed like a champ. I was able to access the mSpot app that rents full-length recent release films to your phone. Mspot got its start years ago working with carriers like Sprint to bring the first film experiences to phones. The service parses a full-length film into more than a dozen smaller chapters for munchable mobile viewing. It has been years since I first tested this service via feature phones on carrier decks, but the model is pretty much the same on a smart phone now. Submit a credit card, rent a movie like Prince of Persia for $3.99 and you have 10 days to start watching it. Unless of course you are me trying to watch some form of video on demand today. Because when I tapped the button to enter my credit card nothing happened. Epic fail.

There is an underlying lesson to this tale of woe. Video is the currency of 21st Century media. Elective video is the next great media entitlement. Sure, I could have found a TV screen just about anywhere on my travels. A big honkin' Samsung HDTV is sitting to the left of me in the hotel room. But that is not video. That is just TV. For video to realize its promise as a a fundamental communications medium to which we refer for information as we once did with text, then is must also always be there. The delivery systems are not there yet.

Guess it's time to turn on the TV. Wonder what the powers that be are willing to serve me tonight?