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Extremely rare I use public wifi - there's a couple of places where phone signal doesn't work and I want/need some internet (underground, planes, actually on bo

by ta1243 2y ago

Extremely rare I use public wifi - there's a couple of places where phone signal doesn't work and I want/need some internet (underground, planes, actually on board the trains, some cafes etc), but at major stations? It's not like they offer wifi at stations where there's no phone signal (and if they did it would be better all round for the phone companies to offer 4g service instead) What is the value proposition for wifi at stations?

logifail 2y ago
Visitors to the UK might be charged roaming fees by their foreign mobile provider.
ljf 2y ago
I'd guess there are still a subset of people with very limited data plans, or who don't have plans at all and use tablets or laptops. If you can offload an amount of those people from asking your staff questions about train times and connections and get them checking online instead, I would guess that could be a cost saving? I suppose it is also something that helps make the train more appealing than other forms of transport. If I know I can turn up 30 mins early and get some work done (or just browse the web), then that help cement the train as a nicer way to travel compared to a bus, or even a car where you cannot work at all if you are the driver.
- miki123211 2y ago
  also tourists, which there's plenty of in London. Roaming is expensive. Especially nowadays, with Britain out of the EU and "roam like at home" policies no longer in effect.
  - timoth 2y ago
    > Especially nowadays, with Britain out of the EU and "roam like at home" policies no longer in effect. I thought they were generally still in effect. The multiple UK and non-UK networks I'm aware of still allow free roaming across UK and EU etc.
matt-p 2y ago
Tourism - and if you've run out of roaming data or are being charged per MB then it's actually very useful. We need a better way of doing it though, this unauthenticated network with a captive portal running on some embedded device or some php on a cloud server somewhere is total junk. There is wifi that is authed via your mobile provider on TFL (now mostly redundant as lines now have 4g/5g) but I think it's actually also piped back to your mobile provider and usage comes out of your allowance if you've got one. What if we were able to do the auth step via sim (so we know who is on the network if there's bad traffic) but terminated the traffic ourselves (i.e doesn't come out of your mobile allowance or get piped to them in the first place).
- ta1243 2y ago
  Not a technical problem. The technical solution is 4g. It's a financial consideration - mobile companies charge what they think people will pay. You can't have a technical solution to that.

by ta1243 2y ago

logifail 2y ago

Visitors to the UK might be charged roaming fees by their foreign mobile provider.

ljf 2y ago

I'd guess there are still a subset of people with very limited data plans, or who don't have plans at all and use tablets or laptops. If you can offload an amount of those people from asking your staff questions about train times and connections and get them checking online instead, I would guess that could be a cost saving? I suppose it is also something that helps make the train more appealing than other forms of transport. If I know I can turn up 30 mins early and get some work done (or just browse the web), then that help cement the train as a nicer way to travel compared to a bus, or even a car where you cannot work at all if you are the driver.

miki123211 2y ago
also tourists, which there's plenty of in London. Roaming is expensive. Especially nowadays, with Britain out of the EU and "roam like at home" policies no longer in effect.
- timoth 2y ago
  > Especially nowadays, with Britain out of the EU and "roam like at home" policies no longer in effect. I thought they were generally still in effect. The multiple UK and non-UK networks I'm aware of still allow free roaming across UK and EU etc.

matt-p 2y ago

Tourism - and if you've run out of roaming data or are being charged per MB then it's actually very useful. We need a better way of doing it though, this unauthenticated network with a captive portal running on some embedded device or some php on a cloud server somewhere is total junk. There is wifi that is authed via your mobile provider on TFL (now mostly redundant as lines now have 4g/5g) but I think it's actually also piped back to your mobile provider and usage comes out of your allowance if you've got one. What if we were able to do the auth step via sim (so we know who is on the network if there's bad traffic) but terminated the traffic ourselves (i.e doesn't come out of your mobile allowance or get piped to them in the first place).

ta1243 2y ago
Not a technical problem. The technical solution is 4g. It's a financial consideration - mobile companies charge what they think people will pay. You can't have a technical solution to that.