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Wifi on board
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Southern were an early adopter before taking it away.
Deafdoggie
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XC have a contract WiFi provider, basically they provide the WiFi, and the customer (passenger, not XC) then pay for it. Essentially it is cost-free for XC, but doesn't cost either, but it is under contract for the franchise length. The spanner in the works is first Class, which I think XC pays the supplier for.
The earlier WiFi providers obviously have earlier equipment, so it isn't as good as more modern equipment, which is a large part of the problem.
The earlier WiFi providers obviously have earlier equipment, so it isn't as good as more modern equipment, which is a large part of the problem.
Yes if I remember correctly GNER were first and Scotrail were first to provide a free service for the whole train .
The Southern system was very costly to set up and roll out compared to the Icomera system that almost all TOCs have gone with (including Southern now).
You can always prioritise bandwidth for first class users, and speed cap those in standard.
The XC equipment might be earlier, judging by the issues I once had. I had to get a refund it was so bad.
TractiveEffort
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GWR HST & IET WiFi is in my experience, unusable most of the time, you might find it OK if you have never moved away from an old dial up line at home..... It works, just about if there are 2 or 3 people in the train, get it 1/3 full and you might as well revert to 3/4G.
I was surprised they chose the same supplier for the IET as HST, as it has never been good or reliable.
Wallsendmag
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It was free for the game and I managed to watch the first half with only a couple of short problems.
OK. I thought perhaps it was a permanent move. Obviously not.
Ih8earlies
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Do Crosscountry still charge for wifi in Standard Class? I thought it was supposed to be free from April 2018?
Im pretty sure they still do.
Deafdoggie
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Ih8earlies
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and yet the extension contract taking XC up to 2019 specified free Wifi onboard as well as 4G. By April 2018.
Why is no one calling them out on this?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/better-journeys-for-passengers-on-the-cross-country-network
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They don't care or maybe done have e Pugh staff to call them out. I mean the DfT. Perhaps no one else has noticed until you did.
This morning I went to YouTube, whilst using a Southern branded WiFi connection on a Southern branded train, running as a Southern service even. The fa t the Trai. Had WiFi was great. They don't all have this yet is my understanding.
It is also my understanding watching of videos is against the terms and conditions. Fine as I wanted my account settings. When I first got onto YouTube it started to play a video. Some advert. I quickly got to my account page to stop it doing so.
No problems so far. After looking up the Google Help it transpired I needed my advanced account settings page for YouTube.
So I went there and guess what, Cisco software blocked it!
Now I'm aware blocking software is set up to be automated but you'd think the whole site would be blocked and not just the advanced account settings page or a subset of YouTube pages including that one. If I'm right that watching videos is against the terms, you'd think the site would be completely blocked.
I wonder what was on the advanced account page that the Cisio blocking software didn't like.
I left what I wanted to do until later as I was now nearing the station where I'd be changing trains.
It is also my understanding watching of videos is against the terms and conditions. Fine as I wanted my account settings. When I first got onto YouTube it started to play a video. Some advert. I quickly got to my account page to stop it doing so.
No problems so far. After looking up the Google Help it transpired I needed my advanced account settings page for YouTube.
So I went there and guess what, Cisco software blocked it!
Now I'm aware blocking software is set up to be automated but you'd think the whole site would be blocked and not just the advanced account settings page or a subset of YouTube pages including that one. If I'm right that watching videos is against the terms, you'd think the site would be completely blocked.
I wonder what was on the advanced account page that the Cisio blocking software didn't like.
I left what I wanted to do until later as I was now nearing the station where I'd be changing trains.
kristiang85
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I genuinely didn't realise TOCs charged for Wifi anymore - but now I know they do after having to pay £3 to Virgin for the privilege of doing work on my Friday night trip up north.
At £70 for an advance ticket on a 2hr train the very least you expect is free wifi!
At £70 for an advance ticket on a 2hr train the very least you expect is free wifi!
I seen them responding to a tweet about this a few days ago. They have said that delays in rolling out equipment upgrades to provide the necessary capacity has pushed this for the end of the year.
I ran a speedtest or two onboard one of their trains the other day and the speeds were okayish. I have to connect to a VPN hosted at home to be able to run the speedtest, as they seem to block the speedtest servers.
I do wonder what they mean by "4G" though. Are they looking to fit repeating equipment to improve 4G coverage for mobile users in the train, or simply looking to upgrade their own equipments backhaul for 4G.
Install the Virgin Red app, it has free wifi codes.
I seen them responding to a tweet about this a few days ago. They have said that delays in rolling out equipment upgrades to provide the necessary capacity has pushed this for the end of the year.
I ran a speedtest or two onboard one of their trains the other day and the speeds were okayish. I have to connect to a VPN hosted at home to be able to run the speedtest, as they seem to block the speedtest servers.
I do wonder what they mean by "4G" though. Are they looking to fit repeating equipment to improve 4G coverage for mobile users in the train, or simply looking to upgrade their own equipments backhaul for 4G.
Upgrading their equipment to use 4G I assume - which will make a huge difference if they're currently connecting on 3G only. 3G is nowhere near as efficient as 4G, suffers from 'cell breathing' and other issues.. not least a reduction in spectrum meaning there's 'less of it to go round'.
The only upside is that most people probably now have a 4G phone, so in some cases the demand is reduced and 3G can perform well, but it's not a given - especially in rural areas.
In terms of repeating a signal inside a train, it just needs to operate on the right frequency bands. With 3G spectrum being 'refarmed' for 4G, a lot of the old GSM and 3G frequencies are now 4G anyway.
Just to add that my phone couldn't connect either but both could connect to the station wifi when we pulled into Peterborough!
I tend not to use Wifi on trains as I find 4G on my phone to be more reliable and I don't do anything which uses a lot of data anyway.
The problem is with the technology available to provide a high bandwidth connection to a lot of people on a long fast moving vehicle going through a lot of rural locations as well as tunnels.
The problem is with the technology available to provide a high bandwidth connection to a lot of people on a long fast moving vehicle going through a lot of rural locations as well as tunnels.
Brummigrant
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I seen them responding to a tweet about this a few days ago. They have said that delays in rolling out equipment upgrades to provide the necessary capacity has pushed this for the end of the year.
I ran a speedtest or two onboard one of their trains the other day and the speeds were okayish. I have to connect to a VPN hosted at home to be able to run the speedtest, as they seem to block the speedtest servers.
I do wonder what they mean by "4G" though. Are they looking to fit repeating equipment to improve 4G coverage for mobile users in the train, or simply looking to upgrade their own equipments backhaul for 4G.
As long as I can actually get signal, then I've not got any qualms as to how it's achieved.
Yesterday I travelled from Birmingham to Plymouth and could seldom get any data connection. On a 4-car voyager.
The Voyagers are particularly difficult for picking up signal, since the windows have some fancy metallic film to prevent sun heat transfer. If you ever see a Voyager at the right angle on a bright day you'll see the windows look like mirrors.
That said, coverage between Birmingham and Bristol isn't too good even on older stock such as a HST, a lot of the line is simply miles away from any populated areas.
I can stream a Netflix video between Birmingham and Manchester without much buffering at all.
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