Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

A good contract to win for Virgin

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17373523

Virgin Media Wins London Underground Contract
 

Excellent news :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17373523

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Excellent news for some of my family who live in London and who use the underground nearly every day.:tu:

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Threads merged ;)

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

London underground= poor customer relations and constant stoppages

Virgin Media = poor customer relations and constant stoppages

yep a perfect match :D

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

good news :)

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

There is just no pleasing some people :(

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

And good news for me as I work for London Underground :). If i see any info regarding the stations to be connected i will post it up.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

just joking Rob ,i'm sure it will be fine and of benefit to hundreds of passengers ;)

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Lol

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Shame Virgin won this contract, would have been better if BT had got this.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Why?

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Like I said in this thread

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35359365-post5.html

There were other irons in the fire.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

In your opinion but others may share a different opinion Zee.:)

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Lets hope they actually deliver it in time for the Olympics. They don't exactly have a good track record of delivering things when they say they will.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Well if BT had bid for it, and put together a better technical and commercial proposal then they might have.

But, as seen as they didn't, you'll just have to suck it up.

---------- Post added at 09:41 ---------- Previous post was at 09:39 ----------

They delivered 50Mb didn't they?

And Tivo?

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

They delivered Tivo but we are still waiting for:

• The 100s of apps within a year promised by Cindy Rose
• The iOS app that was meant to come last October with the software update
• Multiroom streaming
• Red button services which were promised by the end of last year on their website until they changed it in December to say early 2012.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

None of which are actually that important. The Tivo is here, now and it works. So, delivered as promised. Delays happen.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Or they did, and VM was picked for providing the cheapest and lamest proposal since everything is all about cost these days.

---------- Post added at 10:26 ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 ----------

Upload upgrades weren't delivered on time.

100mb rollout is still months away.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Where are they going to plug in the Superhub?
Want to know so I can get as near to it as possible as we know the signal strength is not the best!

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Don't be silly!! They're not going to use the Superhub's wireless radio to supply the tube..!!!!


They're putting them into modem mode and using D-Link's.

;)

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Well as seen as you don't know, you can spend many happy hours speculating all you want.

And when exactly were you promised to be getting it?

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

By the monkeys on the phone, a year ago.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Sorry to put a negative spin on this news but I personally think the tube is a hunting ground for muggers and I avoid taking my phone out of my pocket when I am using it

I do see lots of people using phones/tablets on the tube and this will only increase the likelihood of muggings.

In my opinion, a nice idea in principal but one which could lead to trouble. I for one will keep my phone in my pocket thank you very much.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

4 million people use the tube everyday, it's a great business opportunity.

Just a bit dissappointing that the wi-fi will be platforms and concourses only, and not actually in the tunnels.

So if you want to use your devices on the train you will lose connection for a few seconds everytime you go into the tunnel.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

I'd have thought trains spent most of their time in the tunnels so you would only *get* connection for a few seconds every time you come out. Something like 70% of the tube network is overground (i.e. already get 3G coverage) and many other European countries already provide 3G coverage throughout tunnels too.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Don't know never put a stop watch on it, have you?

I use the tube quite often, it depends what line you're on. Where stations are close together I don't think theres a massive difference in the avg time spent in the station v's avg time spent in the tunnel.

This is for, initially, 122 Z1 & Z2 stations so mainly U/G ones.

Well we don't.

---------- Post added at 14:03 ---------- Previous post was at 14:03 ----------

Actually one of the main factors in VM winning the bid is that they could deliver it in time.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

CS only know what VM are doing right now. Nothing else.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

You may be right - the only time I usually use the tube is to/from KGX to LHR.

Still only at stations being my point, 3G coverage, where provided, is generally far more continuous.

That's the problem. 3G was proposed in the past and dropped. Instead we end up with a cheap imitation - unlicensed, unregulated, unoptimized wifi. 3G was designed from the ground up to work on mobile handsets, while on the move, and in diverse environments. All of which were just hacked-on afterthoughts for wifi.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

I wonder how many superhubs it would take to provide wifi to 1k people?

Actually thats an interesting issue. Train chunders into a packed platform and suddenly every device thats in-use tries to connect. Then it chunders off and cuts everyone off until it gets to the next station. Would be a fun project to try and figure out how to spec out the AP's.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Pretty easy tbh. Each connected device takes up a fraction of a kilobyte of RAM, and even cheap APs come with several megs - the Superhub has 64MB for example, plenty for a hundred thousand clients.

The bigger issue would be the firmware being designed to handle it properly, and we all know how good the Superhub firmware is at challenging conditions...

In all likelyhood they'll probably use some industry standard managed LWAPs from the likes of Cisco, Aruba, or my personal favourite, Ruckus.. Anything less would be simply idiotic.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

:erm:

That's a little disappointing seeing someone use that term of phrase. :(

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Making up lies to get me off the phone deserves nothing less.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Ruckus, with its beam forming abilities would be good, but the fact is that Cisco Aironet kit has kept appearing on main stations for several months now. Waterloo is a good example, but look around you will spot loads when you look for them.

Is it odd that Virgin Media managed to secure this contract over the regular people in this field like Cloud (Sky) and BT, and even "new-comers" like O2? I have tried to find another example of a Virgin Media public Wi-fi installation, and have so far failed to find a single example.

The London Underground environment will clearly be very challenging, travellers moving through a station will associate and disassociate with APs pretty quickly, and will move between AP domains (stations?) pretty rapidly.

I am wondering if Cisco can support these rapid changes in location / IP addresses. There are reasons that Manhattan has 20K Public Wi-fi APs above ground but far less in the NY MTA below ground.

A critical parameter will be how they cope with a train load of say 1,000 users with say 20% having Wi-fi enabled devices arriving and passing the first AP on a platform in a 15 second window as the train arrives.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

I've had - and continue to have - severe roaming problems on the Cisco Aironet kit, which is why I'm not a fan. Wireless roaming functionality on it, is by admission of Cisco's own senior engineers, a dirty broken hack which is yet to be fixed (though *might* be soon).

I also agree with your point about existing providers. VM have previously stated they are "interested" in providing WiFi in public places but as of yet have no deployments outside of trials that I'm aware of. The Cloud (using Ruckus kit) on the other hand, runs extremely well set up set up simultaneous dual-band 11n (144+300mbps) with beamforming and frankly, are the most advanced APs I'm yet to see on public hotspots.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

thats good..

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

No, it's called competition.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Boris answers WiFi questions http://www.mayorwatch.co.uk/london-u...wers/201219804

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

So, cheapest bidder then (i.e. free)

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

where does it mention anything about "cheapest bidder"?

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Indeed.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

You can't get any cheaper than free.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

On the contrary you'll note there are monies going in the opposite direction

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Exactly. So cheap not only do they pay nothing, they gain money from nothing. Take a look at the disaster that is our privatised railways if you need a reminder of what happens when these situations occur.

(Hint: Most expensive rail fares in the world ring a bell?)

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

The initial stations to get Wi-Fi have been confirmed:

http://mediacentre.virginmedia.com/S...unch-23bd.aspx

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

First stations have now gone live http://mediacentre.virginmedia.com/S...ions-23c0.aspx

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Apparently they're using Alcatel-Lucent equipment not the crappy Cisco junk previously suggested.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

This will be interesting?

http://community.nasdaq.com/News/201...storyid=150464

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

When will there be a nation-wide roll out?

Currently Virgin are lagging behind Sky, BT & 02 who offer this service free to their customers.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Never.

The tube network will never be nation-wide.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

I would expect he means when will Virgin roll out a Metro Wi-Fi service, as indeed they are now exploring with many Local Authorities.

I doubt he expects the Northern line to be extended to Sheffield.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Err, I'm pretty sure qas was posting "tongue in cheek" :D

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Even I got that :p:

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Didn't they abandon that idea in favour of "4G" microsites? Or was it the other way round?

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Must be the other way around, I admit I'm not very close to this as I am other stuff but I do know that they are trying to use the experience gained on the Tube project to roll out to a metro project.

Birmingham, I believe, is the next favoured option.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

What I meant was to be able access wifi hotspots throughout the UK like BT & Sky customers can and not limited to just the London tube stations.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

EE and Vodafone sign up with Virgin Media to offer their customers inclusive access

http://mediacentre.virginmedia.com/S...ound-2404.aspx

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

I saw this before, I hope you used this as leverage to get access to EE 4G network.

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Excellent..

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

Annoying as until a few weeks ago our office overlooked Millenium Square :mad:

Cheers

Grim

Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi
 

O2 and Virgin Media to bring free Wi-Fi to London Underground.

http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/new...n_underground/