Sky-high wifi

Another week, another example of outrageous profiteering from the tournament sponsors, Cable & Wireless, whose privilege it is to provide internet access for the many hundreds of media-men in and around the Caribbean.

Although high prices have been the norm throughout this competition, journalists in Grenada are up in arms at being asked to pay an extortionate US$60 a day for wifi access, a 24-hour log-in that invariably expires at precisely the moment you need it the most. What is more, the bank of eight computers in the Grenada media centre, which are supposed to be rigged up to the internet to enable swift fact-checking and emergency filing, have been disconnected by C&W, who feared that the service was undermining their profits.

A spokesman for the Rushmans agency, who are co-ordinating the media arrangements for this tournament, explained that C&W is run as an individual company in each of the host nations, and so it was not possible to implement a standard policy throughout the whole World Cup.