3G/4G and Virgin stock

[55003]

I commute regulary between EUS and BHI mostly on pendolinos. The 3G/4G is pretty poor along the route but it seems a whole factor worse in the Voyager I am currently travelling on. Has anybody noticed anything similar? Is the onboard wifi any better? It seems nonsense to have to pay an additional fee when I already pay for data on a phone and ipad.

 

[greaterwest]

I commute regulary between EUS and BHI mostly on pendolinos. The 3G/4G is pretty poor along the route but it seems a whole factor worse in the Voyager I am currently travelling on. Has anybody noticed anything similar? Is the onboard wifi any better? It seems nonsense to have to pay an additional fee when I already pay for data on a phone and ipad.

It was a problem last time I travelled VT, on both voyagers and pendos. I have this issue on XC services too.

Funnily enough, each charge for wifi.

 

[FordFocus]

I've always struggled for 3G/4G signal on Voyagers. Other stock doesn't seem to have much of an issue.

 

[55003]

It is noticably worse on the voyager. Lots of no signal or just one dot. I have contracts with different networks so you would hope that one would work. Is the Voyager acting as a Faraday cage??

 

[Mike395]

It's likely - I have the same issues on the East Midlands Trains Meridians (Cl 222) which have a similar bodyshell construction.

 

[hwl]

The metal film (for sunlight etc. reduction) on the Bombardier windows does a good job of attenuating all phone type signals.

 

[Puffing Devil]

The metal film (for sunlight etc. reduction) on the Bombardier windows does a good job of attenuating all phone type signals.

^ This

 

[najaB]

The metal film (for sunlight etc. reduction) on the Bombardier windows does a good job of attenuating all phone type signals.

It effectively turns the whole carriage into a Faraday cage. The Virgin examples used to carry signage to the effect that an enhanced mobile signal was available, but I'm not sure if it extends to the 1800/2100/2600MHz ranges used by 3G/4G or only refers to 900Mhz 2G.

 

[dcd]

The metal film (for sunlight etc. reduction) on the Bombardier windows does a good job of attenuating all phone type signals.

And GPS signals

 

[Peter Mugridge]

And GPS signals

But no reception problem in the vestibules on said stock, however...

 

[RJ21]

And this just adds to the not exactly reliable wifi on VT, I have been known to hotspot my phone but that's when I can get a 3/4G signal, being EE it's not too terrible near built up areas but rural sections can be a little poor, north of Carlisle I find my phone slightly better than the wifi for connection speed.

 

[Comstock]

FWIW it also knocks FM reception for 6 as well.

 

[WatcherZero]

Virgins today announced airline style free tv and film content streaming from an onboard server when using their app Beam, 200 hours of content initially available which will vary between East and West Coasts.

West Coast Pendolino available now
East Coast services rolled out 'from' today
West Coast Voyager services from September

Initially available content:
Film The Wolf Of Wall Street, Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Bridesmaids and Despicable Me 2. TV shows including House Of Cards, Poldark and Fortitude; childrens Frozen, Peppa Pig, Ben 10 and Horrible Histories.

 

[westv]

Never heard of the Beam app.

 

[najaB]

Virgins today announced airline style free tv and film content streaming from an onboard server...

Scotrail's updated Class 158's offer a similar service, though they don't require installation of an app.

 

[DarloRich]

Virgins today announced airline style free tv and film content streaming from an onboard server when using their app Beam, 200 hours of content initially available which will vary between East and West Coasts.

West Coast Pendolino available now
East Coast services rolled out 'from' today
West Coast Voyager services from September

Initially available content:
Film The Wolf Of Wall Street, Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Bridesmaids and Despicable Me 2. TV shows including House Of Cards, Poldark and Fortitude; childrens Frozen, Peppa Pig, Ben 10 and Horrible Histories.

Interesting - is this free content?

BTW I have long given up trying to get a phone signal on Virgin West Coast and the wifi only seems to work until about Warrington.

 

[ag51ruk]

It's working well on my android phone - all free content, and some decent (and recent) stuff as well. Have just watched an episode of Fear the Walking Dead, the app is clever enough to remember where you got to in a show if you exit and then come back to it.

No problem downloading the app, but you need to do it before you get on the train or via 4G - it didn't need any special permissions
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Never heard of the Beam app.

It's a Virgin Trains app, and is new - specifically for this service

 

[nuneatonmark]

As a regular commuter between Nuneaton and London and also occasionally to Glasgow, Voyagers were always significantly worse than Pendos and LM 350s somewhere in the middle. However, after having had my latest phone for the last two years I don;t have any problems on any of them, I can get good 3G/4G almost all the way from Nuneaton to London, although ironically it's fine for browsing/email but rubbish for holding a call. Also, going to Glasgow, with the exception of some longish spots around the borders, it was fine there too.

 

[mbreckers]

It's working well on my android phone - all free content, and some decent (and recent) stuff as well. Have just watched an episode of Fear the Walking Dead, the app is clever enough to remember where you got to in a show if you exit and then come back to it.

No problem downloading the app, but you need to do it before you get on the train or via 4G - it didn't need any special permissions
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


It's a Virgin Trains app, and is new - specifically for this service

If this is gonna be a thing on Virgin Trains from now on may I suggest that they make a slight change to the app, so that it only works if you have headphones plugged in -_-

 

[RJ21]

That's quite a good idea, and is possible, it doesn't even look that complicated to specify that the speaker output be disabled using java for Android at least as it's java based coding it should work on all operating systems.

 

[David Goddard]

Virgins today announced airline style free tv and film content streaming from an onboard server when using their app Beam, 200 hours of content initially available which will vary between East and West Coasts.

West Coast Pendolino available now
East Coast services rolled out 'from' today
West Coast Voyager services from September

Initially available content:
Film The Wolf Of Wall Street, Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Bridesmaids and Despicable Me 2. TV shows including House Of Cards, Poldark and Fortitude; childrens Frozen, Peppa Pig, Ben 10 and Horrible Histories.

Just received an email about this, and had to read it twice to believe it.

Every time you use the Virgin WiFi, you have to click on a button to acknowledge acceptance of the customer terms and conditions - i.e. that you will only use the WiFi service for emails and general surfing - streaming of video material and uploading/downloading of large files is not permitted as it is uses too much bandwidth and is unfair on other users.

Every time I have used Virgin WiFi lately, I have suffered with other users taking the p*ss by streaming etc, such that I can not even load Google!

Now I read that they have launched a new service which actively encourages customers to stream films. Unless they have dramatically upgraded the speed and capacity of the onboard WiFi service, it will be rendered useless to anyone who has the slightest desire to work or just casually surf while on the train.

 

[najaB]

Now I read that they have launched a new service which actively encourages customers to stream films. Unless they have dramatically upgraded the speed and capacity of the onboard WiFi service...

Or, as was posted, it is streamed from an on-board server.

 

[gimmea50anyday]

The problem with voyagers and mobile phone signal has been known about since introduction. Cqtering crews often had to stand in the corridoor connection to get calls to connect long enough to place any top off orders. Orange did introduce some equipment to a few sets to improve reception but if you werent on their network you lucked out. Wether that equipment is still fitted to any trainsets or not remains to be seen.

 

[Flying Snail]

Just received an email about this, and had to read it twice to believe it.

Every time you use the Virgin WiFi, you have to click on a button to acknowledge acceptance of the customer terms and conditions - i.e. that you will only use the WiFi service for emails and general surfing - streaming of video material and uploading/downloading of large files is not permitted as it is uses too much bandwidth and is unfair on other users.

Every time I have used Virgin WiFi lately, I have suffered with other users taking the p*ss by streaming etc, such that I can not even load Google!

Now I read that they have launched a new service which actively encourages customers to stream films. Unless they have dramatically upgraded the speed and capacity of the onboard WiFi service, it will be rendered useless to anyone who has the slightest desire to work or just casually surf while on the train.

It is the 3G/4G/satellite connection from train to internet that is the main bandwith limiting factor, as this content will be streamed from a server on the train it is not putting any load on that pathway.

 

[Comstock]

Or, as was posted, it is streamed from an on-board server.

Yes. Similar things have been used on airlines, especially budget ones. There is no connection to the wider internet- indeed many aircraft don't have such a connection.

Instead of installing expensive seat back entertainment systems, they 'beam' the inflight movies to your phone or tablet via a closed system For those that don't have a device, iPads are made available to borrow, presumably at a fee......

 

[RailAleFan]

With initiatives such as this likely to increase demand for device charging facilities, I thought recently that it would be handy if the now defunct (?) entertainment console between every pair of seats on XC Voyagers / Virgin Pendolinos etc. was re-purposed to provide a pair of USB charging points instead.

If the cabling already in place to provide the entertainment system would be capable of delivering 5.0v @ 2.1A x 2 to each pair of seats I would have thought it could be a relatively low cost fit out if no re-cabling was required...

 

[telstarbox]

That's a great idea, especially using an onboard server. Look forward to trying it next week!