Wifi on the train

Yesterday I spent half an hour on a train in northern England. And there I found out that the local railway company GNER is now offering Wifi on their trains. As I had my laptop with me, of course I had to try that.

The result was mixed. Half an hour of Wifi cost me £2.95 ($5.35), which isn't the most horrendous charge I've seen, but still not cheap. And then the connection was rather slow, and sometimes just stopped. Still I managed to make a move in Travian, and to read my e-mail. But I wanted to write this blog entry *on* the train, and couldn't get connected. For 5 minutes I couldn't get anywhere, and then I got a slow connection again when approaching my final destination, and it was too late to blog.

I'm sure that with time we will see more Wifi connections in public transport. I've heard they are working on solutions to offer Wifi in planes, which for intercontinental flights would be really nice. But right now Wifi coverage both mobile and at places like train stations or airports is still patchy, and often too expensive.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:18 AM Permanent Link