London Underground wi-fi charges from January

[bicbasher]

From January, the current free wi-fi service provided by Virgin Media at stations will be £2 per day except for customers to Virgin Media, Vodafone and EE (T-Mobile and Orange) who'll continue to have free access.

It's not really good value for money if for most people, they'll only access it for maybe 2-3 mins at a time between the gateline and the platform.

 

[MCR247]

So it looks like quite a bit of people will still get it for free? Sounds good to me

 

[maniacmartin]

One of my colleagues uses it for instant messaging, and manages to send a response to questions every time his train pulls into the platform for a few seconds and his phone re-associates with the Wifi. It makes for very slow discussions

 

[MCR247]

But better than no discussion

 

[Daniel]

Current planned prices are £2 a day, however there is also planned to be a weekly £5 charge or a monthly £15 charge, which seems much more reasonable.

 

[Ivo]

Is there anything to stop a user sitting on a platform for ages whilst using this system? Of course, there are some situations - travelling to Chigwell for instance - where waits of over 15 minutes may be required...

 

[Daniel]

Is there anything to stop a user sitting on a platform for ages whilst using this system? Of course, there are some situations - travelling to Chigwell for instance - where waits of over 15 minutes may be required...

Nope, nothing to stop you. Other than if you're on Oyster!

 

[ATW Alex 101]

But the connection time to connect to the WiFi would probably be about 20 seconds or more, as somebody I know had said, and there is only like 2-3 minutes, like which has already been mentioned, so really there isn't any point in the WiFi if your only there for a few minutes, not like you can do much either.

If they had it on the trains that would be better, I'm not an expert but is there a way of getting it on a train running underground? I know it would be fine on trains running overground, WiFi on the Met would be alright once you get overground same with the Central line up to Epping.

 

[Dstock7080]

Run leaky feeder cable along the tunnels, as used by LU's Connect radio system.

 

[jon0844]

You don't have to board the first train! I've skipped 3-4 to use the Internet, which is ridiculously quick at most stations. Great for uploading files (eg video).

 

[bicbasher]

You don't have to board the first train! I've skipped 3-4 to use the Internet, which is ridiculously quick at most stations. Great for uploading files (eg video).

I used the wi-fi to stream a high bitrate radio station using the tune-in app going between the Jubilee and Northern lines at Waterloo using the travelator, solid reception and coverage throughout the station complex. Amazing!

 

[jon0844]

I have to say that it's great that so few people even know there is Wi-Fi. That and the fact that Virgin Media wants to show off the sorts of speed you can get from the company - so they've not capped the service.