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German Railways To Get WLAN RailNet

Posted by Zonk on from the wlan-spiderwebs dept.

wertarbyte writes "According to the German IT news site Heise, german Telekom and the german railway corporation Deutsche Bahn have formed an alliance to equip the ICE high speed trains with WLAN access (Babelfish translation), as well as the stations those trains arrive at. This offer is aimed at business travellers, and will first be introduced on routes frequented by those ("travel time is usable time")."

9 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Network Connectivity by civman2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    From TFA: "In order to lead the data from and to the driving course to, the British set on a Wimax net along the distance, which is to?rtragen up to 32 MBit/s"

    So they have a big Wimax router on the train which connects to several 802.11G routers throughout the train which give you your wireless.

    Internet -> Wimax -> 802.11G -> Your Laptop

  2. Re:Yes, but... by josh3736 · · Score: 4, Informative
    The article is lacks any information about price, but digging through the translated comments attached to the article, it seems as though you can buy 8 hours (480 minutes) of access for 30 euro in the stations. (4€ for an hour.)

    Whether or not the same pricing model would be carried over to the on-board access no one knows.

  3. Re:Yes, but... by Mattwolf7 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well since it is by T-Mobile i'm sure it will be part of the same service they have in the US http://www.t-mobile.com/services/hotspot/overview. asp

    So around $29.99 a month

    Looking around the German site I don't see a monthly package. http://www.t-mobile.de/business/tarife/1,2279,3809 -_,00.html Hopefully that changes

  4. Canada Has This by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    VIA Rail already offers this serveice in Canada:
    http://www.viarail.com/wirelessinternet/e n_index.h tml
    Wi-Fi on the train, Internet heandled by 2 way to a Bell satellite

  5. British railways already have this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is great. Access is free in the 1st class seats and the speed is good. I was travelling at 100mph on my way to London while IM chatting with friends in Canada.

  6. Re:Nice by The+Hobo · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is available, at least in the Toronto-Montreal corridor. Only on VIA1 (first class) though.

    --
    There is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. -- Boondock Saints
  7. Re:Yes, but... by ambrosen · · Score: 5, Informative

    If it's anything like the service in the UK on trains that are almost the same speed, it'll be free in First class and start at about €5 for half an hour in Standard class. Of course, it may differ for whatever reason.

  8. Re:Network Connectivity by MyGirlFriendsBroken · · Score: 3, Informative

    In the UK one of the operators, GNER, who serve the East Cost have been rolling this out over the past year, there is a link from the GNER Wi-Fi page Which explains who it works for them. A combination of satalite and mobile phone for when in tunnels

    --
    If you read a speed reading book, does it take you less time to read the second half?
  9. The Swedish X2000 and X40... by willgott · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...is WLAN-enabled and it has been for quite some time I think. The link to the outside world seems to be managed with the help of 3G and satellites. More info here