Virgin's Free Train WiFi - Neither Free, Nor On Trains
from the let's-try-that-again... dept
Not sure if this is just sloppy reporting or misleading PR. Last year, Virgin Railways in the UK announced that they were putting WiFi on their trains - which they weren't. They were simply putting WiFi in some stations. Now, they've done it again. This headline trumpets: "Virgin Trains offers free Wi-Fi". However, when you read the details, you see that's not true. Once again, they're just offering WiFi in the stations - and only in the "first class lounges" at five stations. I'm not quite sure how it works, but I imagine that you have to pay a bit more than nothing to get access to the "first class lounge." Even then, the "free" part is only a limited time promotion, after which they're looking to charge £100 (~$180) for a six-month subscription. So, now you have to be traveling first class, using a specific station where you'll get to use WiFi for the few minutes while you're waiting for the train and you'll pay about as much as you'd pay for a cheap home broadband connection. It seems like the initial headline isn't the most accurate description of what's actually happening.
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Trains and delays
I doubt anyone would be remotely interested in that type of WiFi access, you could just buy a card to surf the net through your cell phone connection for about the same price anywhere (which has pretty good coverage even in transit).
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