MuniWireless

Reading Transport will be providing free Wi-Fi access to passengers on the buses operating in the Thames Valley tech corridor west of London. Like the Stagecoach and National Express bus lines, Reading Transport hopes that free Wi-Fi will bring more passengers to their buses. Reading Transport will be providing free Wi-Fi access to passengers on the buses operating in the Thames Valley tech corridor west of London. Like the Stagecoach and National Express bus lines, Reading Transport hopes that free Wi-Fi will bring more passengers to their buses. They are using equipment from Moovera, whose access points are used by the Stagecoach and National Express lines. Click here to see my article about the Stagecoach Wi-Fi service with statistics on cost, amount of data uploaded and downloaded.

The Reading Transport service runs between Reading town center and rail terminus to the Thames Valley Park at the east of the town, and UK headquarters of major international corporations including Microsoft, Silicon Graphics, and Oracle.

This reminds me of the Microsoft Wi-Fi bus service I wrote about a few weeks ago whose purpose is also to get people out of their cars and if they can do work on public transport, it makes this option more attractive.

Reading Transport says they carry hundreds of commuters everyday and are looking for ways to enhance service. According to the press release, “the Wi-Fi-enabled Thames Valley Park (TVP) buses run every ten minutes during peak periods including morning and evening commutes. Reading Transport, wholly owned by the local authority Reading Borough Council, has selected Vodafone UK as the mobile data service provider for the deployment, taking advantage of Vodafone’s nextgeneration 3G network that utilizes HSDPA (High Speed Download Packet Access) for download speeds up to 3.6Mbps.”

How much does 3G backhaul from Vodafone cost? In my earlier story, I found out that Stagecoach is paying 25 GBP ($50) per month per bus, which is very reasonable.

“Commuter routes are ideal for in-vehicle Wi-Fi services,” said Jim Baker, Moovera CEO and founder. “With an increasing number of hand-held devices such as mobile phones and PDAs having Wi-Fi built-in, accessing the Internet to check your email, surf the web or update your blog is now easier than ever before. With free Wi-Fi access on the bus, TVP passengers in Reading can now make the most of their journey time to and from the office - at no cost to them. This really does represent another step towards the future of public transportation.”

Where it makes sense to provide free Wi-Fi

This is one of those city Wi-Fi projects that is very targeted and makes sense. Free Wi-Fi is a way to get more people into the buses and out of the cars. The city and region want to reduce traffic congestion; people want to use their time more efficiently (i.e. do work on their commute instead of sitting behind the wheel of a car). Private transport companies like Stagecoach (London-Oxford) and National Express (London-Cambridge) are already providing free Wi-Fi service to attract passengers.