UK Dominates Europe with 2000 WiFi Wireless Internet Equipped Trains

Consultancy firm BWCS has claimed that the UK is ahead of every other country in Europe, at least when it comes to the number of train carriages (2,000) that have been equipped with wireless internet (wifi) capability.

The report also predicts that the market for on-train wireless broadband services within the EU will grow from £37.5 million (€47m) in 2011 to £64m (€80m) by 2021, with growing adopting being driven by competition (e.g. many bus companies are also installing wifi).

Europe’s Top 4 On-Train Wi-Fi Countries
1. UK (2000 Carriages)
2. Germany (911)
3. Italy (995)
4. France (416)

Interestingly BWCS noted that over half of all WiFi equipped train carriages offered a FREE service, while 17% charge for access and 28% use a mixed model of free and premium solutions.

Betty Altemuller, BWCS’s Report Author, said:

“We’ve seen the rise of WiFi on trains creep forward over the last few years,“but now as competition becomes a reality, operators old and new are scrambling to make their trains WiFi-receptive.

There is an increasingly compelling business case for train companies to get WiFi onto their rolling stock, both in terms of giving them a USP in the battle to win passengers and in terms of reducing operating costs.”

Naturally all this extra internet access availability will not only be good for consumers but businesses too, making workers more productive. Mind you it’s one thing to be productive during working hours but we always worry about people being over-worked outside of the office. Rest is important too.