South Western Railway (SWR) has introduced superfast Wi-Fi on services between the London suburb of Earlsfield and Basingstoke.
Capable of providing speeds up to 20 times faster than the current available average, SWR have now become the first train operator in Europe to implement the new rail-5G Wi-Fi technology.
Passengers travelling along the 70km track can now stream content, make video calls and download large files whilst on-board, with previous bandwidth restrictions having largely been removed.
Developed by FirstGroup’s rail division, the Wi-Fi solution utilises 5G in order to provide more reliable connectivity over mast-based connection offerings typically found on the vast majority of services across Europe and the United Kingdom.
David Statham, FirstGroup’s Rail Commercial Director, commented:Improving services for passengers through superfast and reliable connectivity – especially on-board Wi-Fi services – is a key step in rail becoming the transport mode of choice.
The Rail-5G solution we have installed on SWR can dramatically improve connectivity on passenger trains and the technology allows passengers to have constant, uninterrupted and consistent internet 20 times the average speed of today’s mobile connection.
We are very excited to have completed the installation of the project with SWR and Network Rail and we are sure that customers travelling on this stretch of the network will notice a real difference.
In order to provide superfast speeds, the technology uses trackside poles and antennas installed along both the route and trains themselves in order to create a bespoke network for passengers and staff.
The technology has been rolled out following a successful large-scale pilot on SWR’s Island Line on the Isle of Wight.
Peter Williams, Customer and Commercial Director for South Western Railway, commented:We’re thrilled that our customers travelling between Earlsfield and Basingstoke are the first to benefit from this unprecedented superfast Wi-Fi.
Customers can now stream, download files, video call, and much more – without worrying about their connection.
Whether travelling for work or leisure, having access to a strong and reliable internet connection will make their time on board more productive and enjoyable.
We hope this will make travelling by train an even more attractive option, helping to get people out of cars and onto the rail network.
SWR has stated that the speeds provided will allow for the download of a full HD 1080p movie (5GB) can be downloaded in roughly four minutes, a full album can be downloaded in less than ten seconds and a ten-episode series of a tv show can be downloaded in around 15 minutes.
