Gov Reveals FREE WiFi on UK Trains to Deliver Just 1Mbps Per Passenger

The Government’s effort to roll-out “high speed” Mobile Broadband to most train commuters by 2019 and WiFi to many of the busiest parts of Britain’s rail network by 2017/18 has been criticised after it was revealed that the on-board WiFi contract only required a speed of 1Mbps per passenger.

The Department for Transport has been working to improve on-board Internet connectivity for several years (here, here, here and here) and the Government’s Minister of State for Digital & Culture, Matthew Hancock MP, recently offered an interesting update on progress.

The bad news is that they’ve set a rather low bar for broadband performance, but the good news is that it’s designed to improve.

Matthew Hancock MP said (Debate on the Digital Economy Bill):

“Requiring free wi-fi on trains has been undertaken through new franchises and implemented also in existing franchises. The obligation to provide free wi-fi is now secured in 10 of the 15 franchises and we forecast that more than 90% of passenger journeys will have access to wi-fi by the end of 2018 and almost 100% by 2020. There have been further programmes, such as the superconnected cities programme. The hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley says she wants to press us to achieve all we can, and we accept the challenge.

For all new franchises, the current specifications will require a minimum of 1 megabit per second per passenger, which allows for web browsing, basic email and social media activity. Crucially, this is set to increase by 25% every year with a focus on ensuring that it is reliable and consistent because dropped calls or frequent breaks in ability to access wi-fi are seriously frustrating.

There are even stronger bids in some competitions. For example, the East Anglia franchise, which I use a lot, will provide up to 100 megabits per second to the train by 2019, then 500 megabits per second by 2021 and 1 gigabit per second by the end of 2021 on key intercity routes, not least the Norwich in 90 and Ipswich in 60 plans. That is totally brilliant and I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Devizes for making it happen.”

It’s worth pointing out that the figure of 1Mbps is hardly a surprise, particularly given the technical challenges of maintaining such a connection on a fast moving mode of transport (well.. sometimes they’re “fast moving“).

The figure of 1Mbps also reflects a flexible minimum level, which we’d assume must be associated with a designated average number of typical passengers and active connections per journey. So outside of the busiest hours commuters may perhaps expect something faster, albeit perhaps not astoundingly so.

On top of that we are talking about a “free” service and as such we can hardly expect to get superfast speeds on every trip. On the other hand the price of a ticket today can often be incredibly expensive and so the concept of “free” may have a different meaning to those who rely upon trains for daily commutes.