Wi-fi services have just been made available, starting this week, on the Glasgow subway. This is the first sector of the British underground railway network to be equipped with mobile Internet connectivity.
The service will be provided by ‘The Cloud’ in association with Arqiva.
Wi-fi connections will be available on all 15 railway stations of the network on its platforms but not in the tunnels, reports CNet.
The Wi-fi connection will initially be available for free to all users for the first 15 minutes and after that they will be charged at the rate of £2 for 24 hours.
iPhone users with service from O2 will be able to use the service for free and will be automatically connected whenever they are within range.
The Cloud also intends to attract more mobile phone companies to tie-up with them for this service by providing advertisements and brand placements.
Services such as train timetables, delay updates and transit maps will be available for free. VoIP calls through services like Skype, Fring or Apple’s FaceTime will also be free.
Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, has been trying hard to get such a service available on the London Underground before the 2012 Olympics, but so far he has not succeeded.
The addition of Wi-Fi on underground train networks could significantly increase the amount of mobile Internet usage in the UK’s major cities as commuters would be very likely to use the services to pass time during their commute.
