Irish Rail now charging for Wi-Fi

[Colm Moore]

No mention of method of purchase or billing.

http://irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=700

Wi-Fi trial on selected Cork-Dublin Intercity services by Corporate Communications

Friday 25th June
07:00 Heuston Cork
10:30 Cork Heuston
14:00 Heuston Cork
17:30 Cork Heuston

Saturday 26th June
15:00 Heuston Cork
18:30 Cork Heuston

Sunday 27th June
13:00 Heuston Cork
16:30 Cork Heuston
21:00 Heuston Cork

Monday 28th June
08:00 Mallow Cork
09:30 Cork Heuston
13:00 Heuston Cork
16:30 Cork Heuston
21:00 Heuston Cork

Prices as and from Thursday 24th June:
€1.50 - 1 hour
€2.00 - 2 hours
€3.00 - 3 hours


Availability may be subject to change without notice

Iarnród Éireann has announced that wi-fi trials are now underway on selected Dublin-Cork Intercity services.

The trial follows an assessment of technical aspects of a wi-fi service on the route, with strong coverage levels across the Dublin Cork line.

Initially, free wi-fi is available, and partners in the trial, Fleet Connect, will also offer web access to customers at a variety of price points, allowing Iarnród Éireann to assess the likely customer uptake.

A spokesperson for Iarnród Éireann said “we are looking forward to this exciting initiative, to establish the uptake from customers for the wi-fi services, and to see the impact on the rail travel experience. We are hoping the option to avail of on train internet connectivity for all customers – from those checking social networking sites and e-mail to business customers – will prove popular, and lead to a full introduction of wi-fi on Dublin/Cork, and its expansion to other routes – Intercity, DART and Commuter. We would intend going to tender for a supplier partner to undertake this.”

The initial trial will continue for six months on one train set, which will be rotated through scheduled services. Rail bosses are already receiving enquiries on expansion of the facility. “Many customers are already travelling with us because rail travel offers the scope to use travel time productively. Wi-fi obviously broadens such scope dramatically.”

The train-bound system has been designed and installed by Dublin-based FleetConnect, who has also supplied other Irish transport firms with on-board Wi-Fi. “The system provides up to eight concurrent connections using mobile broadband networks from O2, Vodafone, and 3,” said Patrick Cotter, Managing Director at FleetConnect. “During the journey the Moovbox’s patented SureWAN technology will intelligently choose the best networks to use based on availability, and where possible aggregate those networks to provide a bigger ‘pipe’ to the train.”

From our initial testing Iarnród Éireann passengers will be able to achieve up to 3.5mbs download which will give them the ability to access the Internet to check their email, surf the web, play games and connect to their corporate network. The system is available on the full train set for everyone to use once they have a Wi-Fi enabled device such as a Laptop, I – Phone or smart phone.”