French Trains meet Wifi
As some of you may know, following the use of Wifi on mass transit is one of my personal interests. A quick news bite out of France reports that:
Passengers taking France's high-speed TGV trains between Paris and Bordeaux will be able to test a system giving them broadband, wireless access to the Internet from the middle of next month, the state rail company SNCF said Friday.
The WiFi experiment, which runs to March next year, will be free for passengers carrying their own wireless-ready computers and headphones, while others can rent the equipment for EUR 8 (USD 9).
An access code will also be provided at the stations to allow users to tap into news and entertainment programmes that will be available via the service in 15 wagons on the specially outfitted trains.
This is taking Wifi on transit to the next step -- they aren't just providing Starbucks-esque open access, but they're using the Wifi network to serve content that would otherwise be delivered by in-coach televisions and/or headphone hookups. It reduces the cost of outfitting the trains, as it isn't necessary to enable two systems, plus is makes both people with and without laptops very happy.
Post Author:
amg | 10:05 AM |
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