MuniWireless

Swebus, a long-distance bus operator in Sweden, is now offering Wi-Fi access to its passengers. Swebus has over 80 buses and transports two million passengers every year. According to the press release, this Wi-Fi deployment is the largest in Scandinavia since it will be available in buses that go to Norway and Denmark. Swebus is using wireless access points from Moovera; the backhaul is Hutchison 3’s (HSPA) cellular network. In addition to providing Wi-Fi access, the bus company will use…

Chrysler will begin selling cars with built-in Wi-Fi (as an option) in 2009. You can work on a laptop in your car (not a good idea if you are driving) or let passengers use the network while on the move. The vehicles will use a cellular connection as backhaul. Buses and trains have already been offering Wi-Fi to passengers. I have written about bus and train operators in Europe and the US that have wireless access points that use HSPA…

Korea has conducted a test to find out if Wi-Fi can be used as a cost-effective way to deliver multimedia to Wi-Fi devices (portable and in-vehicle) along its highways. The Korean Highway Corporation used a  31-kilometer stretch between Pangyo and Osan to determine whether a Wi-Fi mesh network could achieve continuous 8 Mbps end-to-end connections for streaming video, voice over IP and multimedia applications at speeds reaching 100 km/hour. It appears that KHC was satisfied with the results (using Strix…

Arriva, a train operator in Scandinavia, is offering free Wi-Fi service to passengers traveling across Denmark, starting with the trains that run between Aarhus, Thisted and Tønder in Jutland. Arriva carries more than 7 million passengers each year.

The backhaul for Arriva’s Wi-Fi service is 3G HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) from 3 (www.3.dk) (which is 60% owned by Hutchinson, a Hongkong based telecommunications company). Because almost all of Denmark has HSPA coverage, the Arriva trains will not use satellite as…