Broadband for East Country Trains
East Midlands Trains have already announced its plans for increasing broadband the availability of this at the stations that it runs. The company is launching a £10m scheme to fit free wi-fi hotspots at 40 main line stations and that this work should be completed by the end of the year. The Customer Services and Commercial Director for East Midlands Trains, Neil Micklewaite, explained that the intention is to complement the on-board wi-fi that was installed on the London bound trains three years ago. He commented “This will further enhance the travel experience of our passengers giving them more options for entertainment or work when travelling with us”. East Midlands Trains has already named the first 11 stations – Alfreton, Boston, Chesterfield, Derby, Hinckley, Long Eaton, Melton Mowbray, Narborough, Sheffield, Skegness and Sleaford which serve approximately 15 million passengers. The remaining 29 stations should be added to the service this autumn. The aim for East Midlands Trains is to offer free connectivity to all its customers both at stations and on its trains along the entirety of its mainline route. Vince Russell, Managing Director, of The Cloud, East Midlands Trains’ partner in this venture has said “Our service provides passengers with fast, free internet access allied with unique engaging content”. Staying in the eastern part of the country East Coast Trains has also announced a £2.2m upgrade of the on-board service on 44 of its trains. East Coast Trains has stated that the aim is to achieve “a more reliable internet connection for every user, every time” by investing in the replacement of new access points by installing industry leading hardware and on-line servers. 10 years ago East Coast Trains became the first UK train company to offer wi-fi on moving trains but admits that customers’ expectations as to the quality of service has changed. Peter Williams, East Coast Trains’, Commercial and Customer Service Director has said “It’s vital that our system keeps up with rapidly rising demand from passengers, starting with a more reliable connection into the system from the moment their journey with us begins”. He also said that wi-fi availability was one of the “key reasons” that people travelled on the East Coast Trains’ rather than flying or driving. The upgrades will begin next year thereby making East Coast Trains’ customers amongst the first to benefit from Network Rail’s impending rollout of high speed mobile broadband. What is interesting is that East Coast Trains is at the forefront of this bearing in mind that the company is currently state owned. On a final note the Department of Transport announced at the beginning of the month that approximately 70% of train passengers should be able to access faster internet connections by 2019. That’s another five years away.
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“Busiest Trains To Have High Speed Broadband
The Department of Transport plans to install fast mobile connectivity on the busiest trains on Britain’s rail network over the next few years. This will allow passengers access to download, stream and browse data on their mobile devices. Approximately 70% of rail passengers are expected to benefit by 2019 with noticeable changes coming into effect by 2015. Industry stakeholders will work with Network Rail to formulate a plan of how this will be financed. Network Rail’s existing infrastructure and the installation of new equipment should sort the current poor services on the trains. Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, has stated that he is aware of the problem and frustration felt by passengers trying to use mobile devices on trains. He commented ‘Be it hardworking commuters preparing for the day on their journey into work or leisure travellers making final plans for their weekend away, today’s announcement marks the beginning of the end of poor coverage on our railways’. It is interesting to find out that the infrastructure is yet to be installed when the main rail companies are already installing broadband facilities on their trains.” “Poor Broadband Speed Hits Rural Property Market
According to estate agents potential buyers of rural properties are being scared off by poor broadband speeds. In a comment to The Telegraph, Frank Speir, a director at Prime Purchase said that poor broadband speeds were ‘having a definite effect’ on decisions being made by people to buy rural properties although they probably required little downloads and upload speeds. He even admitted to having personally dissuaded people from buying certain properties where there is poor coverage albeit the potential buyers may try to use satellite broadband. He also commented ‘It’s not an issue about price, it’s simply that I have to advise clients against making a purchase’ Last week, Richard Lochhead, the Scottish rural affairs secretary warned there was evidence suggesting that residents and businesses are relocating from Scotland’s hardest-to-reach communities in order to take advantage of better broadband speeds elsewhere. ‘There is rural depopulation due to a lack of connectivity,’ he insisted.” Superfast Rural Broadband!
The Department of Culture, Media and Science (DCMS) has stated that as of this month the Government’s backed roll out of superfast broadband to rural communities is to increase in pace. The first people to benefit should be farms and dairies with the service being provided to approximately 10,000 properties per week, increasing in the spring of 2014 to 25,000 properties per week and by that summer to 40,000 per week. Ed Vaizey, the Communications Minister stated that “The coming months will see a rapid acceleration in the number of rural businesses and homes able to access superfast broadband”. The DCMS has issued a statement stating that “nearly all” of the projects are at delivery stage with some having already been completed. It would be interesting to know which ones are outstanding. Ultimately by 2016 the aim is to have 90% of next generation of broadband coverage – although the hope is that will be achieved by the end of 2015. However, there does seem to be some anomaly in the information that is coming out. In a report the Prime Minister, David Cameron, told a liaison committee that the figures were 95% by 2017 and then in another statement said that it would be 99% by 2018! The question is will it take until 2015 to get 90% coverage with another 5% following by 2017 and the remaining 4% by 2018? Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) aims for 95% of properties in the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall to be connected next year and it is expected that Devon and Somerset should be connected by 2016. The DCMS have even said that rural broadband speeds are rising quicker than urban ones. It has calculated that the speeds in rural areas have risen by 6.9% since May 2012 and 14.1% since May 2011. The question is what was the starting point for these calculations? However, during the summer Ofcom reported the following findings that in May 2013 the download speed for residential properties in the UK was 14.7Mbps with some areas actually achieving 26.4Mbps as opposed to 9.9Mbps for rural areas. There has been criticism from a select committee that the Government has grossly mismanaged the BDUK scheme (which is publicly funded) and which the Prime Minister has said is “slightly unfair”. There is also condemnation of the Government for permitting BT to become a “quasi-monopoly” by winning every BDUK contract. The National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee have also questioned the Government’s handling of this. BT has been accused of prohibiting the publication of coverage information by local authorities. So I am sure that people can draw their own conclusions from this. One of the critics Janice Banks, Chief Executive, of Action with Communities in Rural England (Acre), has said that some councils have been able to publish maps showing the proposed coverage but the data is sketchy and people have been unable to properly ascertain if they will benefit. Therefore, people in those communities are now playing a game of “wait and see” as they are unable to make a decision on whether to look at alternative forms of broadband connection. Ms Banks also said “This Government want to be sure rural areas get a fair deal from all Government policy. We fear that, once again rural communities are getting a raw deal”. Finally the Prime Minister has defended this by saying “If you stand back and look at it, three years into Government, when we came to power, there was virtually nothing going on with the rural broadband” He also insisted that there is a “realistic programme” to ensure 95% coverage with a view to having 99% coverage by 2018. Access to Adult Content on Wi-fi
The mobile security firm Adoptive Mobile has carried out research on accessibility to unfiltered adult content on free wi-fi hot spots. The researchers visited 179 establishments in Manchester, London and Birmingham and tried to log-on to legal websites but ones which contained explicit content. The results were very concerning in that 80% granted access to drug related content, 30% failed to use filtering to prevent access to pornographic sites, 53% had no restriction on online stores selling swords and knives and 20% had no restriction on access to online sex dating sites. Whilst most people block these types of content on wi-fi used at home it comes as a surprise that this is rarely the case when in cafes, restaurants, hotels etc. and this is very bad news for parents with children who have smart phones, gaming consoles and tablets. Graeme Goffey of Adoptive Mobile stated that this was “for every parent across the UK this report will come as an unwelcome surprise”. Sky News recently interviewed a group of 15 and 16 year olds outside of a café in Manchester and they admitted that they had all owned smart phones since they were 13 and went online with wi.fi. Also they mentioned that they knew people who accessed sites which their parents forbade them from accessing. In an interview with Sky News one of the world’s leading authorities on the use of the internet by children and young people, John Carr, said that “Virgin, 02 and Sky have already block access to adult content and other major wi-fi providers in the UK, BT, Arquiva and Nomad have announced their intention to do the same by the end of the year. He went on to say that “there is also some talk about developing a “kitemark” hotels, trains and buses that provide wi-fi access to confirm that they provide a filtered service”. Children’s charities are running a campaign to ban adult content on all public wi-fi and this has received backing of Prime Minister David Cameron and a spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said “The Government is committed to protecting children online which is why we have been working closely with the major internet service providers, who have already put filters in place anywhere children are likely to be to block pornographic content. “The main provisions cover 90% of all connections in the UK and this report shows that our approach is working and we are ahead of many other countries in protecting children online. |
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