MuniWireless

Users of California’s Bay Area Rapit Transit’s Wi-Fi Rail service achieved average speeds of about 15 Mbps on trains traveling up to 65 mph in a 2.6-mile test area around Hayward, California. These are impressive results, considering that the tests included tunnels, as well as above ground terrain.

In announcing its success, WiFi Rail said its tests “included streaming live video from onboard train cameras while simultaneously watching five Internet video feeds, video conferencing, VoIP phone calls, and downloading multi-meg files. Test train equipment has demonstrated seamless roaming throughout the system and verified contiguous network coverage without service degradation nor lapse of connectivity.”

The network, which is solar-powered, uses single-mode fiber to connect 802.11g access points on the trains to a “collapsed backbone allowing all radios to be connected with equal bandwidth and latency to the same physical network.” In an interview with Glenn Fleishman, Wi-Fi Rail’s CEO Cooper Lee said the company is using a concept called “leaky coax” (a type of uninsulated copper coaxial cable) to carry the signal through the tunnels. It’s a technology that’s already been used widely to provide AM/FM signals radio signals underground in many cities. WiFi Rail has filed four patent applications to protect its design.

Glenn predicts “If BART can have Wi-Fi, it’s going to blow open the lid on commuter Wi-Fi across North America. ”

Right now, Wi-Fi Rail is facing the same challenge all public wireless projects are facing–finding funding sources but the intriguing technology the group has put to work, as well as the fact that patents are pending on it, could attract private investors while the attraction of putting Wi-Fi on public transit systems could attract public partners looking for solutions to boost commuter traffic.

Click here to read Wi-Fi Rail’s press release.

Click here to read Glenn’s report.