News

Vietnam to get WiFi on Trains

(11 Mar 2019, BWCS Staff)

Vietnam Railways (VNR) has announced plans to install WiFi on all of its trains running on the main North-South routes later this year. In addition, it will add a raft of new mobile services aimed at offering better passenger information.

The route, which snakes along the coast between Hanoi in the North and Ho-Chi-Minh in the South currently takes trains just shy of 30 hours to cover. In total, the line stretches 1,726km (1,070 miles) and equates to the lion’s share of the total rail network in Vietnam of 2,600km.

According to a spokesman for VNR, quoted in the local press, the state-owned train operator has been trialling WiFi on some of its trains since 2015. The company is said to be working with Vietnamese mobile network operators Mobifone and Viettel to provide the WiFi service on all North-South trains this year.

The VNR has set a target of increasing its output by 8% and its revenue by 7% in 2019 despite increasing competition from low-cost airlines and road, sea and waterway transport.

Plans to construct a high-speed link between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh have seemingly run into the buffers. Back in 2010 a US$33 billion government-funded project, with Japanese help, was on track to cut the journey time on the route from 30 hours to just over nine. However, in the end, the money did not materialise.

BWCS is constantly monitoring developments in the WiFi on Trains sector within each national market. For more information about how to access our international database of interviews and market developments, please go to www.Internet4Trains.com

On-board WiFi, trackside networks, the growing market for passenger WiFi services and on-board entertainment will be the main subjects of BWCS’s WiFi on Trains Conference 2019 on the 4th and 5th of June.

For more information on the conference please see www.Traincomms2019.com or contact Ross.Parsons@BWCS.com .

The 2019 conference (www.Traincomms2019.com ) is sponsored by Icomera, Nomad Digital, Fluidmesh, RADWIN and BAI Communications.

 



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