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WiMax Hits 100 mph on Rails to Brighton
judgecorp writes "T-Mobile has put a Wi-Fi service on the London to Brighton Express commuter service. It uses WiMax (ok, pre-WiMax) for the uplink, and is cheap enough to put on any other long-distance rail service. One interesting thing is that they didn't need to wait for next year's "mobile" WiMax version: the system can handover between base stations at 100mph, using today's pre-WiMax (802.16d) products. The only drawback - in June the free trial ends, and we'll have to pay T-Mobile's high Wi-Fi charges."
The only drawback - in June the free trial ends, and we'll have to pay T-Mobile's high Wi-Fi charges.
May this not end up as bad as cellphone service.
High charges? On the British rail network?
NEVER!!!
In a battle between WiMax and Doppler shift, I'm putting my money on Doppler.
If my experience of the London-Brighton line is anything to go by, the money would be much better spent :
i) installing more seats or adding extra carriages
ii) actually cleaning the inside of the trains from time to time.
It's no use getting a WiFi connection if you have to stand up the whole bloody way.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
"The Brighton Express is an apt place for a pioneering Wi-Fi service, given Brighton's role as a high-tech media-savvy remote suburb of London"
Since when has Brighton been a "high-tech media-savvy remote suburb of London"? As far as I'm aware, the only thing Brighton's particularly renowned (infamous) for is its status as the UK's San Francisco...
We Build Beautiful Websites
Never mind the wi-fi, I'm impressed by the fact that a UK train reached 100mph in the first place.
Am I the only one getting tired of all these uninteresting stories about WiFi being available here or there?
Yes, you can bridge hundreds of wireless routers and have humongous hot spots, yes you can get WiFi on moving spaces, yes you can go to the desert and have a connection over large distances and maybe beat this week's world record.
We know that.We really do. WiFi is great, it's this awesome magic thing that allows you to download the interweb out of thin air. Now knock it the hell off.
Thanks you.
When will T-Mobile, SBC, Telarama, et al all realize their wifi business model sucks? I mean seriously, 5 bucks an hour, 20 bucks a month? For scattered coffee shops and book stores that I maybe frequent once a week? None of them has anything near enough coverage to make a subscription worth my while and their hourly rates are way too high. Maybe for a certain sector of the populace, those earning six figures and those who spend a lot of time in coffee shops, this is acceptable, but to middle america (where the real money is) it stinks. Maybe if they all pulled their resources and allowed me to log into any of their collective hot spots for a reasonable (~$15) monthly fee I'd consider it.
There goes another brilliant service down the drain.
High User Access Charges: The reason why services like these remain hugely unpopular.
Irony though is, service providers spend a fraction of what they earn over these services. Yet the "its-a-premium-service-hence-we-milk-you" syndrome keeps them from bringing the charges down. When will the service providers understand that term premium is only notional. Mobile was a luxury only 10 years ago -- now a country like India as 100mn cell users -- why ? because its low-cost.
Price is an entry barrier -- and high prices let less and less people use a service, and recommend it to other users. I just hope T-mobile understands that and keep the charges minimal, so that more users use it. And OEMs can provide more cheap solutions leveraging the service -- like wi-fi for train-staff communication.
Bah ha ha ha. That would involve someone other than Branson buying new trains (not that it's improved service. Bransons 15 minutes off the journey doesn't help you when your journey is an hour late. Like on Saturday, and the seats are uncomfortable as well.).
Besides the rust holes on the roof improve the WiMax signal reception.
I've recently figured out why the South East is sticking to the ancient third rail system in use, despite the low maximum speed possible using it. It's so when we finally become a fully fledged third world country people will be able to ride on the roof of trains, just like you see in travel documentaries.
Philip
Signatures are broken
Great, now I can stand on the platform at Three Bridges and get WiFi access for free for a few seco...
The south west is simply not electrified, you mean the south. I come from North Devon and believe me it's the back of beyond. It's a wonder the trains are not pulled by horses. Modern innovations like cable TV and large multiplexes are unknown.
The Pendolinos are just like the voyagers and supervoyagers except they are a little bigger inside. They are fast though, really fast. You really appreachiate the difference when you go to London on one and come back on one of Bransons relics.
Philip
Signatures are broken
I have it because it's my primary internet connection. I live one block from a hotspot and I get it from my house. $30/month for a T1 (that almost nobody else uses) is not that bad even though it's NAT'd.
The account is good at thousands of hotspots world wide (including, I assume, this train one), so really it's a pretty good deal.
I've been thinking of getting a Sidekick -- then the fee for a TMob Hotspot account would drop to $20. =P
(Just to stress that I'm not astroturfing here -- I don't think I'd pay for this service if it weren't my primary internet connection at home... There's lots of free hotspots available at all sorts of businesses and public places... but if I traveled a lot more and were well-payed, I think I'd do it.)
Yes. They would be very effective at pushing up the revenue per passenger if you put all the second class travellers on the roof.
Philip
Signatures are broken
Their rains are nicer (and faster) too. Still costs £8/hr unless you are in First Class (in which case it is "free"), but that isn't too bad if you are working - not so good for personal use though. They are one of the better train companies although £124 to travel from Leeds to London in peak hours isn't cheap!
"I've recently figured out why the South East is sticking to the ancient third rail system in use, despite the low maximum speed possible using it."
I can't remember the source, but I read that the low maximum speed is due to adjacent lines being too close. If the trains went even as fast as high speed British trains on those tracks, regardless of power supply, the force of the air displacement on trains passing each other would be too great. Fixing this would obviously be a much bigger job than changing the power system (re-laying at least half the tracks, widening the space available to the railway etc.)
Middle America is not where the real money is. The real money is in the 2% or so of the population who have the lion's share of the wealth. Middle America's job is to help the people at the top get richer. It's the 19th Century all over again.
"If it's real, then it gets more interesting the closer you examine it. If it's not real, just the opposite is true." -
That would only work until the next bridge, a lot of the bridges on the london-brighton line have less than a foot of clearance... better learn to duck fast.
There is a financial incentive to get new trains, just not _good_ new trains. Which is why the Southern/Thameslink area has a large number of the ultra cheap cattletruck 5 across electrostar trains, the ones that are almost worse than the 60s slam doors. The incentive is this: electric doors don't open once the driver hits the button. So instead of requiring inadequate platform staff that abuse the passengers, you can have no platform staff at all - a big cost saving.
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything." (attrib. Joseph Stalin)
It would be rather ironic if VOIP sounds better using a WiFi connection then it does using standard cell networks.
:)
Can you hear me? Now....now...how bout now? Wait just a sec, let me fire up Skype mobile. Ahhhh...much better.
Life is not for the lazy.
If the charges are anywhere near as bad as the WiFi hotspot at London City airport, no thanks. Expensive and restrictive. You can't just, say, buy 15 minutes to check your email, the minimum is 1 hour - usually for about GPB6 or so - and you can't just use 15 mins one day, then 15 the next. (By contrast, in an airport, those 'payphone style' internet kiosks are GBP4/hr and you can buy just 15 minutes for £1 if you want, and you don't get to use up your laptop's battery).
Since I've already paid for GPRS access on my mobile phone, I'll just use my GPRS thanks. Although it's only 64kbit/s, for going on IRC, writing emails and Slashdotting it's more than adequate, and it works well on the train as well as in airports.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
As an American, it's the European *train services* that I would like to have in the States.
As a long-suffering commuter, this news is really astounding. The London-Brighton express can reach 100MPH!
Of course, the speed of the train is pretty much irrelevant if you put the hotspot on the train, which is what GNER have been doing with their long-distance services for the last two years.
But who am I to quibble?
Take commuting into central London. Even with the outrageously high rail fares, it's still cheaper for most people to commute by train than car when you factor in the high-price of parking in central London, and not to mention the Congestion Charge.
...and I can tell you that the implementation is very, very poor.
Not only do they not provide connectivity via a true AP, DHCP is still unable to dish out addresses - I've been getting 169.254.* since they turned it on...
Oh, and it's only available in 3 of the 12 carriages of the train, and only on one train so far...
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Quite steep. Have you considered other modes of transport, such as private helicopter hire? Someone in Bristol worked out it was cheaper for him.
GNER has had WiFI on (faster) trains running between Aberdeen / Leeds and London. The single drawback is that the firm that set it up, Icomera having just sold a system to a Swedish train company, Linx AB, appears to be routing through Sweden, meaning that your default google becomes google.se. Oh. And the GNER website has a lovely little map which updates itself as you wind up & down the country, showing you where you are. In sum, it rocks.