Wi-Fi Rail Tests WiFi On San Francisco Subway

Wi-Fi Rail, an internet access start up, has been testing their mobile WiFi service on the San Francisco subway system. They claim that their service will offer Internet access to people on the subway at speeds much faster than their own home broadband access.

So far WiFi Rail has run their tests at various subway stations, and also on certain areas of the BART line (Bay Area Rapid Transit). The test delivered 15M bits per second delivery rates for data throughput to the WiFi testers while in transit. Most home broadband speeds rarely exceed 1.9Mbps. This makes Wi-Fi Rails patent pending technology a possible gold mine for the small start up.

They plan to roll out their Wi-Fi Rail service in subway and train stations and on the subway lines in San Francisco first, but their ultimate goal is to blanket the world with mobile WiFi in transit centers in every major city. The company thinks (rightly so) that users will be enthusiastic about the fact the 15Mbps holds true both upstream and downstream. Above ground the company uses traditional line of sight technologies to get its connection across, but inside the tunnels the lines are on a kind of leaking, unshielded coaxial cable relay system to enable the signal to travel the length of the tunnels.

A start up with a plan, WiFi Rail plans to charge transit riders to use the service. The company has not disclosed it proposed fee structures yet, but says its technology is ready to go and can be used in any transit area that follows a direct route, even a roadway system. BART has not officially signed on in the San Francisco area beyond the testing phase, but the company spokesperson assured the media that they had a US transit provider interested in deploying it, as well as an international one.