More about wifi on Irish rail..

I blogged about getting WiFi on Irish trains some time ago.
Since this blogpost it has become clear to me how much this type of service is in demand. I have spoken or been approached by several dozen people who agreed with the sentiment expressed in the blogpost. These people ranged from entrepreneurs and students to civil servants. All these people had one thing the in common: they were all willing to either pay more for a ticket or to use the train service more if WiFi internet access was available.
I was also approached by John Kennedy from Silicon republic who wrote on the subject.
Subsequently I was approached last Wednesday (May 21st) By Radio station Today FM who wanted to record a discussion between Barry Kelly (spokesperson for Irish rail) and myself for their "The Last Word" show.
I am not going to summarize the discussion as it has not yet been broadcast but what I can "reveal" is that Barry Kelly indicated that Irish Rails' main reason for not having WiFi on trains yet was that there was significant price-tag attached to this and that they had yet to see an proposal that showed a revenue benefit for them. When I then repeated my earlier offering of installing a public WiFi service on all Irish Trains at NO COST to Irish Rail Barry Kelly just repeated his previous statement. I then had to come straight out and ask him, seeing that I had just blown his argument out of the water, if he would at least meet me in order to discuss my proposal. he said he would but I have still not heard anything. I might just give them a call.

On another note; WiFi on trains continues to be a hot topic across the globe.Thalys launched their service around the same time as my previous blogpost.
TrainComms 2008 the world largest conference on Trains and communications is taking place in London on the 11th & 12th of June. WiFi aboard trains is their main theme for the conference.

There is also a good blog on Blog4IT on wifi on trains. Some quotes from the article:
"Major European, US and Asian operators are rapidly following the UK’s lead and introducing on-board, high-speed wireless Internet connections for their passengers."

"As Graham Wilde, CEO of BWCS, put it, “This year there has been an unprecedented number of new services and trials launched. From the West Coast of America, to India and Australia, we are seeing more interest than ever in these on-board WiFi systems.” He went on “train companies are fired up by a heady combination of introducing cost-saving applications for their own operations and adding new, income-generating, entertainment services for their passengers.”

The full article can be read here..

I think that it's time to put more pressure on Irish rail to provide this service. It will lead to increased ticket sales (especially for the premium rate ticket), will most likely also lead to an increased spend per traveler, it opens up a number of new avenues for information dissemination, improves communication etc.
It will also get people to get out of their car and into the train which in turn will lead to less congested roads and lower CO2 emissions.
Combine that with the fact that because of our offer it would not require any investment in infra-structure for Irish Rail and I really cannot see how they can refuse any longer. Can you?

Poll: WiFi on Irish Rail..

Train-Fi.......

There has been an ongoing discussion within the Irish blogger community recently on the subject of public wifi internet access on trains.
There is a growing demand for this type of service and the provision of it will certainly get more bums on train seats and off car seats. This in turn would lead to lower car usage resulting in lower carbon emisions, surely something that the government should support? I for one would be inclined to take the train rather than drive if it meant that I could sit and work while traveling.
Irish Rail doesn't think that this is a viable option and states the following in it's FAQ:

"Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) feels that it wouldn’t be in the public or the
company’s best interest to install the current wireless technologies on
its fleet for customer use due to the limited lifespan of said
technologies. Anything we install now is likely to be completely
redundant within five years.

We feel customers would be better supported by obtaining their own
wireless solutions, such as those provided by the mobile providers (3G
and GPRS/EDGE ). 

IÉ is hoping that near-future new technologies such as WiMax and
other long range wireless tech will make the idea of onboard solutions
redundant.  We will continue to monitor the speed of advance of such
technologies and if we deem that change is not occurring quickly enough
we may reconsider the situation."

Now this is clearly a cop-out. Not installing a service because it "is likely to be completely redundant within five years"? Nonsense, for one the market share of wifi-client devices is still growing year on year. These devices will still be around in five years time and people will still be using them.WiFi is still the most convenient and costs effective solution for mobile internet access and it will stay that way for a good while to come. Also not providing a service because it might need to be replaced by something else in five years time just doesn't make sense. The low cost of providing wifi access in trains puts it on par with such things as keeping the toilets clean. Now surely they will not stop cleaning the toilets just because it might have to be done again tomorrow?
Passing the buck to 3G and GPRS/EDGE services also shows to indicate that no reserach has been done to support this statement. Conor O'Neill recently documented the huge gaps in coverage for these services. Hoping for Wimax to solve the problem is like kneeling down and praying in front of an oncoming tsunami. It might make you feel better but it won't change reality. While Wimax is a very "good technology" it is not as good as the media has repeatedly hyped it up to be and it is still far, far away from becoming a consumer end technology. When Wimax networks would become more common in Ireland it would be a perfect backhaul medium for local WiFi networks in trains.

It is not like this hasn't been done before. Irish Rail clearly has not looked beyond the Irish sea when considering offering public WiFi access. This article in the International Herald Tribune gives a good overview of what has been happening in this field:

"Train operators across Britain and the Continent have been
accelerating the rollout of onboard Wi-Fi systems, allowing travelers
to prepare for meetings, download video clips or catch up on their
e-mail - sometimes while zipping through the countryside at 300
kilometers, or 190 miles, an hour.

While some railway companies see Wi-Fi as a new source of revenue
for themselves or for the technology companies that run the systems for
them, others see it as a service or marketing perk.

"It's a key tool that we use to compete with the airlines," said
John Gelson, spokesman for National Express East Coast, a British train
operator that has one of the largest on-the-go Wi-Fi systems, in 43
trains that ply a 950-kilometer route between London and Inverness,
Scotland, via Edinburgh."

There you go; in one fell statement. People want it, people will use it and it IS possible. Also it will increase the number of people using the train and these are also quite often the people purchasing first-class or premium price tickets. All this will lead to increased revenue for the Rail operator.
5 minutes of research shows that the following public transport operators are offering public WiFi access:

• Isle of Wight Ferries
• Some Stagecoach
  services in Scotland
  
• Certain bus routes in Wales
  
• Scottish
  Citylink routes
  
• Glasgow flyer shuttles
  
• Certian National Express
  routes in the UK
  
• Some trains & buses in Helsinki
  
• GNER
  trains across the UK
• National Express East Coast (UK)
• Deutsche Bahn (Germany)
• Thalys, which runs high-speed trains linking Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne
• SNCF (France)
• Heathrow Express
• Amtrak

All of these operators have successfully deployed public WiFi using a variety of backhaul methods (3G, satellite, wimax etc.).
The user demand is clearly illustrated by these comments on Twitter. People want it and if it's not available they are clearly annoyed. The increased availability of WiFi enabled phones, Internet laptops and small notebooks as well as the ever growing share of user generated Internet content only supports the argument.
Pratically it is no great feat to install WiFi networks on trains. The main issue is the backhaul connectivity and even for that there are a number of solutions. A combination of these through redundancy combined with content caching should overcome all but the most obscure of problems. Signal propagation within the train is also no big issue even in spite of the large amounts of metal surfaces causing interference. This can be overcome by a properly carried out site survey, a sufficient number of WiFi AP's/hotspots and proper radio-planning.

Another issue to consider is that this WiFi network, through the use of a captive portal solution, can be used for more than providing "plain vanilla" Internet access. The portal can be used to provide public service information, updates on travel times and delays, connecting trains (and other modes of public transport) destinations etc. It can also be used to offer VOIP services and as a means of communication for Irish Rail staff.

All this does not have to come at a huge cost to Irish Rail; I have stated before that (pending certain conditions) that AirAppz is offering to install a WiFi service in most, if not all trains throughout Ireland at NO COST to Irish Rail. The ball is in Irish Rails' court now....     

Blogged with Flock

Why the Lisbon treaty needs to get the boot; part four.....

Time for another post on this subject as the yes-voters seemed to have stepped up their campaign and are now resorting to smear-campaigning.
Rather than use my own arguments I will use this post to air the views of another opponent of the Lisbon treaty.
Former Labour MP Tony Benn recently sent a open letter to every Westminster MP highlighting urgent issues relating to the Lisbon treaty.
Following is the content of the letter:

Dear Member of Parliament,I am writing to ask you to make it possible for me - and every elector in Britain - to vote on the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum. For the Lisbon Treaty transfers important powers which belong to us, to others in Europe we do not elect, cannot remove, and who therefore do not have to listen to us in the way that MPs listen to their constituents.

Britain must work closely with its European neighbours, but if this cooperation is to succeed, the arrangements must be democratically approved by all the people of Europe.

There is a case for a fully federal Europe. But surely those who take that view should, as democrats, want to win a majority for it in a referendum. That is why this decision must be made by the British people as a whole, because it will affect us all irrevocably and the Lisbon Treaty can never be amended or repealed by any future government that we elect.

Moreover, if three-line whips are imposed, telling any MPs how they must vote, it could not then even be argued that parliament had decided the matter freely. For all these reasons I hope you yourself will feel able to vote for a referendum, thus safeguarding the rights of your electors.

Tony Benn

Think links...

Stuff worth reading:

- Andrew Gill on walking the walk
- Gordon McDowell's VC-pitching skills
- Another reason to lock your keypad
- Another chapter in Apple book of how not to market a product
- Top 100 Telco blogs
- Worst WiFi hotels 2008
- Ruckus Wireless sues Netgear
- More nonsense about guns
- Twitterfone launches!
- Don't try to be smarter than your customers
- 1.4 Gb of stolen personal data
- Best service providers for startups

Interesting: EU approves use of public funds for broadband in Scotland.

Read on MuniWireless:
The European Commission has allowed Scotland to use £3.4 million (€4.32 million) in public funds to bring broadband to remote areas of Scotland. EU state aid rules place restrictions on member states using public funds to subsidize the creation of broadband infrastructure or services that compete with private enterprise. However, in this case, the Commission concluded that public funding is necessary to bring broadband to users in remote areas of Scotland. Private service providers will have non-discriminatory access to the wholesale services if they decide to serve those remote areas.

I wonder if this will set a precedent that will break the EU's reluctance to approve this type of investments so far. Maybe Dublin's councillors should pay attention..

Using Twitter as a customer support tool.

Most of you will be aware of Twitter, it's an SMS driven micro-blogging tool.
Messages are sent to a central number and are then displayed on the Twitter website. You can subscribe to other people's tweets, send direct messages, receive updates to your mobile, import your tweets into your blog etc.
It's a great way to throws short (140 character) messages into the public domain and start discussions or exchanges.
Recently I used Twitter for another purpose; we were providing public WiFi access at the IWTC conference in Dublin.
Part of the agreement was that we would also support the network during the conference.
Rather than permanently place someone on-site I decided to use a new approach to providing support. I knew that there would be a good few "twitterers" at the conference so I decided to communicate with them via Twitter to keep track of the networks performance and to correct any issues.
On one of the days we were alerted that the connectivity had dropped but very little other detail. I quickly put a message out on twitter seeing who at the conference was using the wifi access and in what areas. It was quickly determined that the issue was in the bar area. I logged into the network remotely, rebooted the wireless access point in question and put another message on twitter to see if the problem was solved. I had a response within a minute letting me know that everything was back up and running.
All this took less than 10 minutes and was done during my lunch from the kitchen table in my house!
It really shows the power of a medium like Twitter.

Interesting (but not surprising) iPhone usage stats.

Courtesy of iSuppli.

I wonder is it's user or application driven....

Enterprise Ireland organises Pre-HPSU Information workshops

Good news for budding entrepreneurs:
Enterprise Ireland has organised a number of workshop for people that are feeling the itch to start their own business. The workshops are primarily targeted at potential HPSU's.
"We will be running a series of short duration workshops on Entrepreneurship during May throughout the Mid-West Region to promote the notion of entrepreneurship as a career move/option. The workshops will be run over 2 consecutive evenings in Ennis, Nenagh and Tralee.

The workshop for North Tipperary will take place on the 21st/22nd May in the Abbey Court Hotel, Nenagh from 7-9.30pm.

The workshops are aimed at individuals/graduates with a business idea which has the potential to be scaled significantly within 3years and be export driven. Following on from the workshops, individuals may have the opportunity to progress to either a more in-depth six week Enterprise Start programmes, a 12month Enterprise Platform programme and/or engage with an EI development advisor on an individual basis with a view to developing a full business plan.

On the first evening of each workshop we plan to give participants an overview of the business development process with a specific focus on the market for the product/service, defining the actual value proposition, conducting market research, market development etc. This will be followed by a case study from a local entrepreneur (Templemore man Jimmy Martin, www.AMCS.ie for the Nenagh event) who will outline his experience of setting up a high growth business. On the second night we will cover the funding supports available via EI and VC’s and we will also have an input from an entrepreneur on their experience of raising finance, funding the start-up etc. We are currently getting promotional material printed and will be placing ads in local newspapers and radio in advance of each event. I will send the brochures to you as soon as I get them, any help you could give in terms of promoting the event to any of your clients would be great and they would be most welcome to attend."

For more details contact:
Catherine Hogan
Senior Regional Development Executive
Enterprise Ireland
catherine.hogan-at-enterprise-ireland.com