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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")."

31 of 202 comments (clear)

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

    ...how much will it cost?

    1. 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.

    2. 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

    3. 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.

    4. 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.

    5. Re:Yes, but... by peculiarmethod · · Score: 4, Funny

      "I'd probably kill time by reading a book instead."

      I hope it's on the Slashdot Approved List, else ye are a sinner and should lose -2 points for blasphemy.

      --
      ** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
  2. Re:Is it free ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Where is this "free beer" everyone is always talking about? I must be getting screwed...even Keystone Light is costing me 15+...

  3. Does that mean it's.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    War-railing?

  4. Nice by Klar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If only they had this in Canada. I used to take the train several times a month for 5 hour trips, and interent would have been real nice for working on assignments using my laptop. Instead, I had to work offline, then quickly connect for about 30seconds to update stuff when we would pull into a station. This could be very handy if more places start implementing it.

    --
    Boxing Equipment Reviews
    1. 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
  5. This is good by Husgaard · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I live in Denmark, just north of Germany, and would really like to see this in danish trains.

    From time to time I travel on train for a few hours. On business class I can get an electric outlet for my laptop so it doesn't run out of power while I work. It is nice that I can get some work done in the train.

    But it is really annoying to be disconnected from the net while I travel by train.

    I wouldn't mind paying a bit extra for the ticket if I could have access to the net. (Well, I don't pay the ticket myself. But my company wouldn't mind paying either.)

  6. 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.

    --
    After all, I am strangely colored.
    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: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?
  7. 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.

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
  8. Lucky by ananegg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Those Europeans get all the cool Train stuff........

    --
    Insert Pithy Quote here.
  9. 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.

  10. Contractors... by scaltagi_the_pirate · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And if you work as a contractor..."travel time is billable time!"

  11. Thanks for the original by Husgaard · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The original translation was so horrible that I could almost not understand it although I fluently read both english and german. The translation you provided was readable, and the original german article was even better.

    If /. is going to link to auto-translated articles, I would prefer that the Google translator is used. Both because it translates fine and because it contains a link to the original text for those who understand the original language.

  12. 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

  13. Will it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    In my physics classes we learned that German trains usually operate at relativistic speeds (with effects that baffled many commuters until they were finally explained by Einstein).

    Will consumer-grade WLAN equipment be able to deal with issues such as Doppler shifted frequencies and dilated packet times?

  14. 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?

  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. wardial? by nameless_man · · Score: 3, Funny

    so - can you wardial for 15 seconds at a time if you live near the tracks?

  18. The Germans get WiFi on their trains... by gwydion04 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... wherease we get no trains. Bush is planning to cut all federal funds for Amtrak, which will pretty much kill it.

    I want my uber-trains with wifi, darnit!

  19. Train stations as well by Eternally+optimistic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Accoding to the german version, a speaker (a guy talking, not an audio device) says that "in the future" train stations will be covered, at least those where the ICE trains stop (as opposed to just drive through). Currently only their "DB Lounges" are served by WLAN.

    --
    What keeps me going is my inertia.
  20. Re:Can anyone explain please by dotgain · · Score: 3, Funny
    It goes over the rails, of course!

    If only they were able to twist the rails around each other, they'd be able to get even better throughput.

    disclaimer: don't take me seriously
  21. Link to original article, not translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some of us are not constrained to speaking only English. Please link to the original language of an article and if someone wants to translate it, they can post a babelfish or other link in the comments.

  22. 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.

  23. 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