Public transport Wi-Fi Broadband to be made a reality
Free wireless broadband could possibly be installed in public transport present in Scotland, revelations say.
As part of this plan, buses and trains in the whole of Scotland will have WiFi installed as a means of encouraging more people to make use of public transport. If this venture is successful, it is hoped that the carbon footprint of the country will reduce due to less people using their own vehicles to go places.
A spokesperson on behalf of the Scottish government said that though the provision of wireless internet access on Scotland busses is a decision to be taken by the operators of that particular bus, the Scottish Government, via Transport Scotland, is in the process of making a business case for providing wireless internet on ScotRail services as a part of this agreement, which shall be presented in the near future.
The spokesperson continued by saying that they themselves were familiar with commuting to places daily and that they would be delighted to be able to do a bit of work or watch some TV in order to make the journey more pleasant. However, when looking at the very poor state of a large number of rail services, the spokesperson said, they would be more than grateful if the trains arrived at the particular stations punctually.
Mobile broadband doesn’t live upto expectations
Data from Broadband Genie, a broadband comparison site, says that only 11% of users of mobile broadband are happy with the speeds that they are getting from their connections. While nearly a quarter were not decided, nearly two – thirds of people said that they felt their connection wasn’t fast enough.
Broadband Genie also mentioned that they are constantly getting complaints from mobile broadband customers about the 3G broadband service and with more and more people subscribing to these services, the level of complaints is bound to constantly increase.
The editor of Broadband Genie, Chris Marling, hoped that this unbelievable figure would get the attention of mobile broadband ISPs and make them think more about the services that they are providing. He felt that they have been selling too many connections without increasing the capacity as such, something that is bound to come and haunt them.
The perception among the public, Marling continued, of mobile broadband is that it is a service which has stability and speed that is comparable with that of fixed – line broadband, which isn’t really the case – and may not be so in the short – term, at least. He continues by saying that exaggerated advertising, as well as false claims of high ‘upto’ speeds have ensured that the public have a false good impression of mobile broadband that the service, in all reality, cannot possibly hope to provide.
The industry, he said, has to put in more effort in order to educate the customers more about the disadvantages of mobile broadband as well so the members of the general public are capable of making proper decisions with regard to whether mobile broadband is the way to go for them or whether they would be better off making use of fixed line broadband services, which are, in reality, more stable than mobile broadband.
This article was sourced from cellular-news.com.
BT to increase number of Wi-Fi hotspots to 1 million
BT plans to increase the number of WiFi hotspots two – fold that it has in the UK to about 1 million within the next 6 months as it looks to tap into the increase in demand for mobile internet.
BT has already gone past the 500,000 number, which is a landmark which took BT nearly 7 years to get past. However, with the number of customers wanting to access fast internet from their mobile phones increasing, the telcos is seeking to increase the stakes when creating new WiFi networks.
The actual revolution is the mobile phone, according to the wireless broadband director of BT Retail, Dave Hughes. People are OK with using their mobile phones to update their status on social networks or to check their emails, which isn’t the actual case with laptops.
He added that while 3G networks will have proper coverage for most users, there is an increasing demand for high speed broadband.
BT expects the massive increase in the size of their coverage to speed up the usage of their network. The extremely profitable WiFi division of Vodafone has doubled their traffic by a minimum of two – fold every year, Hughes added, and he also said that the network has the potential to further grow.
BT has hotspots in a number of public places by way of the Openzone network as well as in 12 city centres like the Westminister part of London which have public WiFi networks installed. The company has recently got a contract provide WiFi hotspots in all Starbucks coffee shops despite the competition from T-Mobile, which had clinched the contract previously.
They also operate a community – based WiFi services by way of the FON network and it is this segment of their business that most of the growth is set to occur. WiFi is functioning as a very integral retention tool for customers for their BT broadband business as the access to Openzone networks is also part of bundled minutes. Casual WiFi users can access their networks for 15 pence per minute.
Source - Times Online
