How much?
At £2 per day, for the 15 minutes per day the average visitor to London probably spends on Tube platforms, I really don't think they'll be getting many people buying.
Virgin's underground Wi-Fi network, which stretches to platforms at 72 London Tube stations, will start charging from January: but customers on the right network will continue to get a free ride. EE and Vodafone have signed up to have Virgin connect their customers for free, with Virgin Media customers (broadband and/or mobile …
I'd agree, but at peak hours when you have to wait for three trains to pass through before being squashed inside yourself, even the platforms are so crowded there's no room to look at a handheld device whilst waiting.
I've often thought of using the wifi (off peak, when you can move your arms) to try and make some Skype calls, just to p*** off the mobe addicts who haven't thought of that, but I'm never around for long enough to justify such shameless and w***er-ish showing off.
I quite often use my Symbian phone to make sip calls just for the same reason (and because it's free). (On a good day it logs in automatically in a few seconds).
Skype isn't quick enough for the time available.
If they have some lame web based login screen (like wetherspoons have) then it would be completely useless, rather than just fatally overpriced.
It's not just the size, it's the massive overmanning you have to pay for thanks to the tube unions. All work needs two safety qualifications. They ensure than no-one who does any work has either of them so they have to be accompanied by someone who does. And no-one has both, so for each job you need two safety supervisors. It really does take three people to change a light bulb.
It gets worse, all jobs have to be done out of hours so everyone is on overtime, then there are working practices which means there are generous travel allowances which see people getting paid for travelling they may or may not do,
A job performed on the London underground typically costs eleven times as much as it would in a similar non-London metro.
This is part of the reason why "connect", the tetra radio system took twelve years to install a three year project.
"It gets worse, all jobs have to be done out of hours "
There's a good reason for that - in the deep level single bore tunnels there's nowhere for contractors to move to safety when a train comes unlike in the shallow cut and cover tunnels so they can't just step aside like they can on other systems. Either they suspend the train service to allow them to work or they work after hours.
I used to work for the underground as an engineer and don't recognise most of what you claim. Have you a reference for this 11x cost? And I know it was a figure of speech, but "ALL" work?!
Yes, work in the narrow bore tube tunnels and >major< track work elswhere must be done out of hours for obvious reasons, but the vast majority of work is done in normal hours. I rarely worked out of hours, and putting WiFi into stations would not need to be out of hours either.
"there are generous travel allowances which see people getting paid for travelling they may or may not do"
As a test engineer I had a all-lines pass as part of my job. Would you expect their own workers to pay for a ticket to get to the work site? Perhaps you think the train drivers should buy tickets for their rides too.
Pay for wifi access? How quaint and 1990's.
To be honest, I don't pay for Wifi when I'm up in the Highlands, with no 3G or any other sort of connectivity, and the local pub is the only place that offers it, and it's a reasonable charge and a good pub. Because five minutes away there will be free, legitimate Wifi if I really want it and there's nothing on the Internet so vital that I have to have it then.
I certainly wouldn't be paying for it in the middle of London when I'm just minutes away from complete 3G access that I've already paid for. And certainly not £2 a day.
Next you'll be telling me they will supplement their income by inserting their advertising on the pages you download, like back-in-the-day.
I saw the sign on the platform advertising free wi-fi so tried refreshing some app I had open but it kept saying no connectivity. Turns out you first have to try to use your browser which will then redirect you to a sign-up page. There were far too many fields to fill in easily with fiddly phone keyboard and then guess what my train arrived.
I once pointed out that exact same spelling error in the brochure for a large school and sixth form college. Apparently the facilities they had were "complimentary" to your child's education (I can only think that the computers must tell the pupils how well they are doing, etc.).
Shame that by that time it had already gone through several rounds of proofreading, through the English department and head of English for verification, and then some very costly glossy printing of thousands of copies. And then they still tried to argue that it wasn't a mistake, basically because I was only a lowly IT technician at that point and they wanted the English department to save face.
When you have to get out a dictionary to prove your point to the Head of English, in a school, you know it's time to move on...
"When you have to get out a dictionary to prove your point to the Head of English, in a school, you know it's time to move on..."
Being right is not remotely coincident with being popular; In fact it looks like some sort of universal constant, that being right makes you unpopular. But here's a glass to all of us who enjoy being the little boy questioning the emperor's apparel, for what little good it usually does us.
I work at a school, and if I pocketed a pound every time I saw a terrible error, I would be rich. By the staff, of course. If you included students, you'd be drowning in money.
I'm referring to simple mistakes, such as incorrect use of apostrophes, misspellings - such as "stationary" where "stationery" was the desired meaning - and so on. Absolutely pathetic, and I don't think you can trust teachers to meaningfully demonstrate an accurate command of English.
I also get free access to Bt Wifi/Openzone with Vodafone. However, my login stopped working about 6 months ago and despite several complaints they have never fixed it. Won't hold my breath for this one!
The only use I've found for the wifi so far though is receiving iMessages while underground but that is a very minor benefit. I don't see why you'd need it otherwise. By the time you connect either your train has arrived or pulled into the tunnel if you are already on board.
Get news articles / emails on the platform to read on the train.
Never wished I had it when it wasn't there and wouldn't miss it if it went.
I suppose once or twice a year it might be useful to be able to email work when tube problems mean I'll be late which is something one often doesn't know about until one is underground.
"There will be a free service, available to all, but that will lead only to a walled garden maintained by Transport for London."
So whats that going to have, a webpage saying "All our services are fine , don't worry , the train will be along in its own time, relaaaaaxxx...." along with some new age chill out music?
Or more likely just a picture of Bob Crow giving us the finger.
I'm signed into this (for free) on my daily commute from the Dwart to the Loo. For the 30 seconds my tube stops at each station my phone barely has time to find the signal, connect, upload/download email/twitter/fb/ junk/whatever before we're off and down the black hole again. Frankly it is unbelievably pointless for free. For £2/day it will be a joke.
On my commute on virgin trains, I'd really find wifi quite useful for the 100 minutes or so a day I spend on their trains. But it costs £40 per month and I'm not paying that for for something I'd use for maybe a few minutes to check emails, read a couple of web pages mostly.
If it was £10 a month I'd consider it, but at £40 I can't imagine anyone paying for it themselves uses it.
"On my commute on virgin trains, I'd really find wifi quite useful for the 100 minutes or so a day I spend on their trains. "
Chiltern offer it for free to all passengers, and it even works most of the time, as well as being sixty quid cheaper for a peak fare into London. Obviously only of use if you can use the line into Marylebone, but if not, we'll spare you a thought.....