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."

Great

[gowen]

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.

Commercial WiFi Clue-By-Four

[MrNonchalant]

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.

Re:100mph?

[TheRaven64]

Intercity trains can go at 125mph. Be aware, however, that this is roughly analogous to the GFLOPS numbers quoted by CPU manufacturers, i.e. down hill, with a training wind and no passengers. The existence of weather (any weather) seems to have a significant adverse affect on their ability to move.

Re:Commercial WiFi Clue-By-Four

[MoralHazard]

For another perspective...

I think T-Mobile's rates are just fine, thank you. And it's probably not just because I have a job.

Seriously, one person (or even many people) with the opinion that the pricing is too high for too little doesn't mean that a business model sucks! Last I heard, T-Mobile's hotspot subscriptions were doing pretty damn well. One of the reasons why the hourly rate is so high is to encourage people who use it more than rarely to subscribe, which helps even out the revenue stream and usage patterns. This is just like cellphone billing--plan minutes are loads cheaper per minute than overtime minutes because they want to impose a cost on you for being unpredictable.

As long as they have enough people who pay the freight, bitching or not, nobody else can say that the price is too high to be a "good business model".

Then again, I come from NYC. When I went to LA for the NBA all-star game last year, I remember driving down Figueroa St., about 1/2 block from the Staples Center, and seeing signs for $20 parking spots 1 hour before gametime. I literally said to myself "$20? What a deal! How can these not be taken this late before the game!" Turns out it was because LA people consider $20 for parking to be a ripoff. In NYC, that's kind of a steal.

I have a T-mobile Hotspot account...

[An Ominous Cow Erred]

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.)

Re:Demand should lead supply

[damyata]

"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 (where the real money is)

[godless dave]

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.

Re:How queer...

[Golygydd Max]

One thing that we born and raised Brightonians do hate hearing is that Brighton is some suburb of London or, even worse, London-by-the-sea. It has a culture all of its own. A Wi-Fi service sounds good in principle but as I, and 100s of others, frequently stand on the London-Brighton trains, I think there's limited opportunity to do any work.

Re:100mph?

[Alioth]

Actually, the HST (InterCity 125) can do 140mph on the level with a full load of passengers, it's been done - they are still the world's fastest diesel train. In normal use they are limited to 125mph.

Re:100mph?

[gowen]

Never mind the wi-fi, I'm impressed by the fact that a UK train reached 100mph in the first place.

We had 100MPH trains [wikipedia.org] back when American Railroads major passengers were migrant workers fleeing the Great Depression.

Who cares about Euro WiFi services??

[OnTheWay]

As an American, it's the European *train services* that I would like to have in the States.

Take the chopper

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite steep. Have you considered other modes of transport, such as private helicopter hire? Someone in Bristol worked out it was cheaper for him.

Re:Who cares about Euro WiFi services??

[Da Fokka]

Many people complain a lot about the trains in the Netherlands, but I think they're very good. Most services are twice-per-hour and there aren't that many delays. The Dutch train system is a dream compared to the british railways.