British train passengers at risk of losing free Wifi
Discussion
It’s an interesting one. With the advent of 4G and 5G, is it actually a problem?
I’d also like to know what the cost of providing train Wi-Fi actually is as a percentage of cost / overall. Presumably It is fractions of a percent which makes me think -
It seems to me that this is more of a pretendy statement from the train companies trying to defend the overall cost of the service by linking it to something they think customers might value.
Personally I’d prefer to see clean trains that run because there aren’t any chuffing strikes or engineering works. Oh and a lower cost !
I’d also like to know what the cost of providing train Wi-Fi actually is as a percentage of cost / overall. Presumably It is fractions of a percent which makes me think -
It seems to me that this is more of a pretendy statement from the train companies trying to defend the overall cost of the service by linking it to something they think customers might value.
Personally I’d prefer to see clean trains that run because there aren’t any chuffing strikes or engineering works. Oh and a lower cost !
fat80b said:
It’s an interesting one. With the advent of 4G and 5G, is it actually a problem?
Portsmouth to Waterloo has very limited signal for a large part of the route, to Victoria most of the route has signal. However as others have said I’d rather have a good train service than worry about if I can get signal.
I’ve thought for a while now that faster trains become considerably less important if you had rock solid hi speed internet access on current trains. If you can get online and work on a train, it seems to me that it becomes less important to shorten journey times (though not totally unimportant).
Generally speaking I find phone signals patchy at best alongside train lines. And I don’t know whether it has something to do with the phone being a “moving target” in relation to the mast, or something to do with hand off between masts, but even with apparently good signal strength the connection is not reliable.
The idea that passenger surveys find wifi low on their list is only credible if the survey is something like: rank the following in order of importance: train not being cancelled; train running on time; having a seat; having wifi.
Generally speaking I find phone signals patchy at best alongside train lines. And I don’t know whether it has something to do with the phone being a “moving target” in relation to the mast, or something to do with hand off between masts, but even with apparently good signal strength the connection is not reliable.
The idea that passenger surveys find wifi low on their list is only credible if the survey is something like: rank the following in order of importance: train not being cancelled; train running on time; having a seat; having wifi.
BrettMRC said:
It's very journey dependent - I recently did Reading to Manchester and there are huge sections there with no viable data signal.
That's a lot of wasted work time.
No viable data signal, or travelling on a Voyager train where the mobile phone relay box wasn’t working? The windows on Voyagers partially block mobile signals, it was one of the big complaints when they were new.That's a lot of wasted work time.
I suspect this might be more to do with the 4G based WiFi kit approaching end of life and the train companies wanting cash to upgrade to 5G.
alangla said:
No viable data signal, or travelling on a Voyager train where the mobile phone relay box wasn’t working? The windows on Voyagers partially block mobile signals, it was one of the big complaints when they were new.
I suspect this might be more to do with the 4G based WiFi kit approaching end of life and the train companies wanting cash to upgrade to 5G.
No idea TBH!I suspect this might be more to do with the 4G based WiFi kit approaching end of life and the train companies wanting cash to upgrade to 5G.
te!Mr_Yogi said:
Having just started using the trains again, with regards to 4/5G. At least on O2 the coverage around the GWR area is pretty patchy and unusable to stream music let alone video. Not that either of those work on train WiFi either.
I've been on O2 for a year now. It's like that everywhere in the SE, or seems to be: the network is massively over subscribed: I'm not surprised it didn't work with a train full of people around you. I imagine we'll be up with 5G masts along the railways: this will solve the problem at no cost to the train company.
Bristol to London is patchy on Wi-Fi or 4/5G. I don’t use the Wi-Fi because I don’t trust what is tracking the data.
Someone went to a coffee shop with some Wi-Fi stuff, routers etc,, don’t ask me what, I don’t know what you need to set up a Wi-Fi system. It was an experiment and no ultimate harm was done but hundreds of people just signed up to his wifi as it was called “coffee shop guest” or something. He took all their login details etc and no one batted an eyelid, they just signed up such is the thirst for free data.
I don’t want Wi-Fi, I want trains that are clean, spacious and run on time. They seem to manage it on the continent albeit most of the DB trains are covered in crap graffiti.
Someone went to a coffee shop with some Wi-Fi stuff, routers etc,, don’t ask me what, I don’t know what you need to set up a Wi-Fi system. It was an experiment and no ultimate harm was done but hundreds of people just signed up to his wifi as it was called “coffee shop guest” or something. He took all their login details etc and no one batted an eyelid, they just signed up such is the thirst for free data.
I don’t want Wi-Fi, I want trains that are clean, spacious and run on time. They seem to manage it on the continent albeit most of the DB trains are covered in crap graffiti.
fat80b said:
It’s an interesting one. With the advent of 4G and 5G, is it actually a problem?
I’d also like to know what the cost of providing train Wi-Fi actually is as a percentage of cost / overall. Presumably It is fractions of a percent which makes me think -
It seems to me that this is more of a pretendy statement from the train companies trying to defend the overall cost of the service by linking it to something they think customers might value.
Personally I’d prefer to see clean trains that run because there aren’t any chuffing strikes or engineering works. Oh and a lower cost !
Boom.I’d also like to know what the cost of providing train Wi-Fi actually is as a percentage of cost / overall. Presumably It is fractions of a percent which makes me think -
It seems to me that this is more of a pretendy statement from the train companies trying to defend the overall cost of the service by linking it to something they think customers might value.
Personally I’d prefer to see clean trains that run because there aren’t any chuffing strikes or engineering works. Oh and a lower cost !
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