Queensland Rail will be offering south-east Queensland commuters free wireless access to the internet from early 2010, according to the Minister for Transport, Rachel Nolan. This access will use spare capacity on the infrastructure used to transmit real-time video footage from surveillance cameras to QR’s control room at Central Station.
One thing from that story that caught my attention was this:
She (Rachel Nolan) said people living near train lines or stations would not be able to tap into the free internet service because it would be “firewalled”.
That would have to be one pretty intelligent firewall! Here are some actual possibilities to guard against free-loaders. One not so attractive way to do it would be to set a limit on daily downloads. The theory is that there’s only so much you could download on the longest possible trip on the QR network in south-east Queensland (say, Gold Coast to Nambour, or something like that). The other more attractive solution, in my opinion, would be to tie usage to go cards. Your internet session starts when you swipe on at the beginning of your journey, and it finishes when you swipe off. There’d be some kind of web-based login procedure like you get at hotels and elsewhere, where you enter your go card number to gain access; or regular users could have the option of registering the MAC address of their wireless card with QR/Translink to skip the login procedure. Given that it still takes ages for a credit card top up to find its way onto my go card, I don’t hold out much hope for QR/Translink being able to implement this particular solution within the already very optimistic time frame of early 2010. But I do think it’s a reasonable long term solution. It might even help Translink in their quest to move more commuters over to the go card from paper tickets.
66 replies on “Free internet access on the train in Brisbane”
I saw that too.
Recent tweets from @earleyedition (he’s a journo for the courier mail) seem to indicate a miscommunication from QR and the minister. QR says that it will not be free but they will guarantee a wi-fi signal for people’s personal 3G usb modems.
Yay for more surveillance! And probably even fewer people giving up seats for those who really need them. Instead of people studying their newspapers and pretending not to see the frail old people swaying in the aisles, we will have people staring into their laptops.
Please NO. Why not use the money for something useful like more trains or cleaners?
Your suggestions about restricting free-loaders are interesting. I can’t see QR implementing anything sophisticated, however.
Hi Ricky,
I’m not actually working on the story for the Courier Mail…well, not officially…just trying to clarify what they’re actually providing, which apparently isn’t free wifi as stated in the Sunday Mail today.
They’ve come back saying it will provide an uninterrupted connection for things like USB 3G modems. But it won’t be free internet – QR won’t provide any bandwidth for downloads…
So the question I’ve been trying to work out is, is that possible, to ensure 3G coverage no matter where the train is? They haven’t said “3G”, again I’m having to assume that’s what they mean because they have mentioned USB dongles.
And, can they ensure coverage no matter the network? QR says it goes to tender in July – so if someone like Optus wins the tender (do telcos bid to build that infrastructure?), is it only people with Optus who this will benefit?
Maybe all of these questions could have been answered if the QR guy would answer his phone after 5.30pm, but there you go. I might try to sum up on my blog what I understand the current situation to be…seeing as they haven’t really given it much length in print.
Well 3G access is a whole different kettle of fish compared to Wi-Fi. I imagine it might be possible to provide some degree of resilience against signal drop-outs with some kind of picocell setup, but I’m not the expert in this area. There are plenty of people at NICTA who could provide some answers to your technical questions, though. Let me know if you would like an introduction to anyone there.
[…] The Thin Line Blog Archive Free internet access on the train Posted by root 3 days ago (http://rickyrobinson.id.au) But it won 39 t be free internet qr won 39 t provide any bandwidth for downloads so the question i 39 ve been trying to work please note comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment the thin line is powered by wordpress Discuss | Bury | News | The Thin Line Blog Archive Free internet access on the train […]
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