UK's Grand Central Railways chooses Icomera: The railway will equip all its carriages with onboard Internet service. Service will commence between Sunderland and London Kings Cross in Sept. 2007. Icomera is the world's largest operator of train-based Internet service. They cover dozens of trains in Britain's GNER line through a former joint venture (Icomera UK, which will handle Grand Central, too), and on the SJ line in Sweden. (Update: See comment--Icomera UK is now wholly owned by the Swedish parent firm.)
Despite rumors last year that the Dutch rail operator NS was preparing to deploy Wi-Fi access across its entire operations, there's been no motion on that front. A page from seemingly last year reports that the "draadloze internettoegang" (wireless Internet access) is in testing in 2006.
Hi Glenn
Glad to see you're still keeping a keen eye on the on-train WiFi sector! I've just returned from a 2-day train comms conference in London and you're right that there is a lack of progress on some European rail WiFi projects. But overall the activity in increasing and the applications are broadening beyond passenger internet.
Just one correction the piece - Icomera UK is 100% owned by Icomera AB. The JV was taken over by Icomera last year.
Best regards
Peter Kingsland
MD, Icomera UK Ltd
Hi Glenn,
as a presenter for and with NS at the same conference Peter went to, I can tell you that there has been definite progress at NS; Since this project also encompasses screens for travel information and entertainment the engineering effort is huge, hence the perceived delay. Prototypes are being built as we speak, roll out will commence later this year. And by the way, deployment would (and will) be limited to the intercity fleet, where travel times make it viable.
Kind regards,
Hans de Grauw
Senior Consultant
Lloyd's Register Rail Europe