Originally Posted by
mad_rich
Don't forget that technology has moved on since those days. Both in terms of the bandwidth available, and the ability to throttle heavy users.
That, coupled with increasing use of passengers' own 3G & 4G connections might make it viable.
I seem to remember GNER was an early adopter of train wifi, which rather handicapped them and left them locked into outdated technology.
GNER were the first with wifi, very handy as I used to use the excuse of leaving the office early on Friday as I could work on the train (even though you couldn't really do much online)
However, East Coast did a massive upgrade of their wifi earlier in the year and it's still not brilliant (I had better performance using the WiFi on an AA domestic flight), so I still worry that it may not cope with the demand.
I think the free WiFi is just a 'quick win' to say they're offering something that East Coast didn't.