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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")."

8 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...how much will it cost?

    1. Re:Yes, but... by astrashe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Laptops are so cheap now, and so common, that I think they'd probably make more if they priced these services for leisure travellers instead of just for business people.

      At thiry euros, I'd probably kill time by reading a book instead. At ten, I'd probably want to geek on my laptop.

  2. Network Connectivity by poopdeville · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is interesting. Putting a bunch of wireless routers on a train is simple enough, but this will only get you a closed, local area network. I wonder how Deutsche Bahn plans to get packets to and from trains moving at high speed, especially considering the promised bandwidth. I can imagine several ways, but none seem cost effective.

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    After all, I am strangely colored.
  3. I think... by game+kid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...Google does a better translation; at least it has no odd question marks.

    Most interesting: "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 transfer up to 32 MBit/s" If that means download rates will be up to that much, I wouldn't mind something that fast on my DSL (mine barely reaches 3MBit/s). Especially in the middle of a railroad (unless that 32 MBit/s is shared by every commuter on the train).

    FWIW, here's the original I believe, for those that understand such a language.

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    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
  4. This will be nice by dyfet · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I recently took one of those high speed trains, from Amsterdam to Frankfurt. It was very pleasant. There is also plenty of room to set and use a laptop, even one of those "big American SUV" laptops like I like to use, as each coach has table space in front of the seats. This is done with the rows of seats arranged opposite each other facing the table, in a very roomy arrangement.

    This indeed was far more civilized than any train I had been in the U.S., and also was much nicer than the horror of ever more cramped planes. All it was missing was wifi. If they change that, it will indeed be very cool.

  5. I might not be old enough to understand this but.. by MSDos-486 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This might possibly play out the same way the widespread use of cell phones did. If you have a cell phone you are expected to be reachable and therefore maybe called upon more often "just incase". Once everyone gets a cell phone everyone is called upon more often. Now if the company knows you have Internet access on the train and notice an increase in your productivity. Do you think they may expect more of you?

  6. They could by MSDos-486 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    transmit the WAN signal the same way they do the power. Either thought the rails or a over head wire. Then connect the wire to WiFi routers within the train.

  7. India already has a trial! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was at home in India during Nov-Dec and was surprised to see the spread of broadband there. RailTel (http://www.railtelindia.com/) has already laid an extensive optic-fiber network to connect the railway stations in India - keep in mind India has the biggest rail network in the world, albeit not the widest in territorial span.
    RailTel has a pilot experiment running on a high-speed train in western India where they are providing wireless access on the train. There are plans to extend that to the rest of the network. Of course, only some chosen, elite trains will get it, but they will get it nonetheless.
    For the price-conscious, I should let you know that the internet cafes at some railway stations in India provide internet access at less than $0.50 per hr and international calling for $0.10 per min through VOIP.