Users of the Virgin Trains west coast line may be pleased to learn that the company is considering the introduction of a WiMAX based broadband wireless service for its carriages.

Nomad Digital is reportedly the preferred bidder for the project, which would connect track-side WiMAX base stations to an external DSL link and in turn deliver Internet access via on-board Wi-Fi. HSDPA (3.5G) mobile broadband is likely to be used as a backup.

It's believe that early links would only operate at up to 2Mbps, yet WiMAX and DSL connections are both capable of going faster, raising hopes that this could increase. Mind you, we doubt 49Mbps would ever be achieved using single DSL links (bonded SDSL, VDSL or ADSL2 perhaps).

Price details and so forth have yet to be revealed, no doubt because the network must be agreed, installed and tested first.