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Greyhound Plumps for WiFi
(08 Sep 2009, BWCS Staff)UK long-distance coach service operator Greyhound is to install WiFi on-board its buses. The company says it will work with Icomera to add passenger WiFi and GPS tracking on all of its inter-city coach services. Greyhound, which is owned by Aberdeen-based transport group FirstGroup, recently launched direct services from London to Southampton and London to Portsmouth with forty journeys each way, each day.
According to Greyhound the free WiFi service will offer passengers Internet access at speeds up to 7.2Mbps via a Vodafone 3G HSPA network connection. Passengers will also be offered power sockets at their seats to recharge their laptops.
Alex Warner, Managing Director of Greyhound UK said in a statement "WiFi is becoming increasingly popular on public transport - indeed our research suggests that that Internet connectivity is a high priority for our customers. FirstGroup has installed Icomera's mobile Wi-Fi hotspot technology on many other UK routes, and it has proved popular as well as reliable."
Icomera's Moovbox M200 Mobile Broadband Gateway acts as a bridge between a vehicle and high-speed cellular data networks including 3G/HSPA, EV-DO and WiMax, providing WiFi access and an Ethernet-based local area network for connecting on-board systems such as CCTV and passenger information systems. The M200 also has an integrated GPS receiver for real-time automatic vehicle location via the web-based MoovManage service.
With the proliferation of WiFi enabled portable devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch and Blackberry, free on-board WiFi is rapidly becoming expected by passengers, especially on commuter routes and inter-city transport services. According to Icomera, all five major UK transport operators - FirstGroup, Stagecoach, Arriva, National Express and Go-Ahead - have deployed its Internet systems on key routes favoured by commuters, students and international travelers, serving over 50,000 Internet connections every week.
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