UK Government Hails Success of Free WiFi Rollout to Public Transport

The Government reports that hundreds of buses, trams and trains in 9 cities across the United Kingdom have so far been equipped with free public Wi-Fi as part of their “SuperConnected Cities” initiative, with 3 million unique users making regular use of the service.

At present most of the live WiFi services on public transport, at least those that have been delivered through the Government’s plan, exist in Leeds, Bradford, Oxford, Manchester, Salford, York, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Newport. A good number of separate commercial and local authority initiatives have also separately helped to push more WiFi onto public transport.

Free SuperConnected Cities Wi-Fi is Now Available On:
* 24 Trains and a similar number of buses in Leeds and Bradford (600,000+ unique users)
* 20 buses and 104 trams in Edinburgh (2.6 million unique users)
* 112 buses in Newport (more than 25,000 unique users)
* 224 buses in Cardiff (almost 90,000 unique users)
* 116 buses and trams in Greater Manchester (more than 265,000 users per month)
* 80 buses in York (almost 20,000 unique users)
* Almost 300 buses in Oxford (more than 100,000 users)

The SuperConnected Cities programme has also delivered free WiFi into more than 1,000 public buildings in 22 cities across the UK.

Ed Vaizey, Digital Economy Minister, said:

“The rollout of free Wi-Fi on public transport has been a tremendous success and I’m delighted that so many people are making use of it. Installing free Wi-Fi on public transport is one of the ways we’re boosting connectivity across our cities and making sure the UK is properly equipped to meet the increasing demands of the digital age.”

It’s worth pointing out that a lot of the free public WiFi access points being installed around various UK cities are also being used to help improve the coverage of 4G mobile networks, with local authorities often giving network operators access to their civil infrastructure (e.g. lamp posts, bus stops etc.) in exchange for improved services.