By David Meyer
Courtesy of CNET News UK
The VoIP company offers an explanation for its disrupted service last week, which it says stemmed from a routine Windows update.
Skype has fixed a software bug that made the Internet telephony service almost unusable for two days last week.
According to a statement released by Skype on Monday, the outage -- which affected the majority of Skype's user base -- came about on Thursday with "a massive restart of our users' computers across the globe within a very short timeframe".
The restart came about as the result of a routine Windows update. "This caused a flood of login requests which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact," Skype's statement said.
The VoIP company, which is owned by eBay, admitted that the majority of its users had been unable to access the service between Thursday and Saturday.
A spokesperson for the company confirmed to CNET.co.uk's sister site ZDNet.co.uk on Monday morning that a fix was now in place for a bug in Skype's network resource allocation algorithm. The bug, revealed for the first time on Thursday, had stopped Skype's in-built "self-healing function" from working properly, causing the most severe outage in the history of the popular VoIP client.
Skype was keen to say that the outage was not the work of hackers or any other malicious activity, and it claimed that its users' security "was not, at any point, at risk".
"This disruption was unprecedented in terms of its impact and scope," the statement said. "We would like to point out that very few technologies or communications networks today are guaranteed to operate without interruptions. We are very proud that over the four years of its operation, Skype has provided a technically resilient communications tool to millions of people worldwide."
Mark Main, a broadband analyst at Ovum, blogged on Friday that it was "quite an achievement" for Skype, now almost four years old, to have gone so long without an outage of this severity. He also suggested, however, that Skype's quality of service had been deteriorating recently, and he said that resilience remained a common issue for commercial VoIP services.
"Perhaps we should still consider some VoIP services as being like a shortcut over rocky ground instead of the smoother, but longer and well-trodden path," wrote Main. "Many users may not yet have decided how many jarred ankles they will tolerate over that rocky ground. You still broadly get what you pay for in telecoms and there is a compromise users must accept in these relatively early days of VoIP-based voice services, especially with the free on-net services."
Thirty per cent of Skype's 220 million customers are business users, according to the company's own figures, with the vast majority of those choosing Internet telephony to save costs.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Rail Passengers To Get Free Wi-Fi Ride
By Andy McCue
Courtesy of CNET News UK
Future east-coast mainline operator National Express has promised free on-board Wi-Fi for both standard- and first-class passengers.
Rail passengers on the London to Scotland east-coast mainline will get free Wi-Fi as part of National Express' £1.4bn winning bid to run the franchise.
National Express will take over the rail route from GNER in mid-December this year after beating off competition for the franchise from Arriva, FirstGroup, Stagecoach and Virgin.
GNER completed the £3.2m installation of Wi-Fi broadband connectivity on all 41 of its east-coast trains last year and, although the service is free for first-class passengers, those in standard have to pay either £2.95 per half hour or £9.95 for a full day's use.
But, in addition to faster journey times, National Express has also promised to extend free Wi-Fi to passengers in standard class as part of its seven-year contract.
The on-board Wi-Fi uses a combination of a satellite link and mobile 3G/GPRS networks to maintain 100 per cent connectivity, even when going through tunnels. A server from Swedish company Icomera on the train provides a 2MB satellite downlink, which is combined with the mobile connectivity.
Wireless access points are then fitted at the end of each carriage on a train, which connect to the main on-board satellite server and can support around 40 simultaneous users in each carriage at one time.
National Express said it will also build a simpler "one-stop shop" Web site to highlight the cheapest tickets available, introduce smartcards by 2010, provide real-time travel updates to mobile phones and allow passengers to print tickets at home or use "m-tickets" through their mobile phones.
Courtesy of CNET News UK
Future east-coast mainline operator National Express has promised free on-board Wi-Fi for both standard- and first-class passengers.
Rail passengers on the London to Scotland east-coast mainline will get free Wi-Fi as part of National Express' £1.4bn winning bid to run the franchise.
National Express will take over the rail route from GNER in mid-December this year after beating off competition for the franchise from Arriva, FirstGroup, Stagecoach and Virgin.
GNER completed the £3.2m installation of Wi-Fi broadband connectivity on all 41 of its east-coast trains last year and, although the service is free for first-class passengers, those in standard have to pay either £2.95 per half hour or £9.95 for a full day's use.
But, in addition to faster journey times, National Express has also promised to extend free Wi-Fi to passengers in standard class as part of its seven-year contract.
The on-board Wi-Fi uses a combination of a satellite link and mobile 3G/GPRS networks to maintain 100 per cent connectivity, even when going through tunnels. A server from Swedish company Icomera on the train provides a 2MB satellite downlink, which is combined with the mobile connectivity.
Wireless access points are then fitted at the end of each carriage on a train, which connect to the main on-board satellite server and can support around 40 simultaneous users in each carriage at one time.
National Express said it will also build a simpler "one-stop shop" Web site to highlight the cheapest tickets available, introduce smartcards by 2010, provide real-time travel updates to mobile phones and allow passengers to print tickets at home or use "m-tickets" through their mobile phones.
Oxford Commuters Get Wi-Fi Bonus
By Jo Best
Courtesy of CNET News UK
The commuter service, which carries passengers between Oxford and central London, has rolled out Wi-Fi to its 25 vehicles using a Wi-Fi and a 3G network.
The Oxford Tube will now offer coach commuters the chance to get online thanks to a Wi-Fi/3G connectivity combo.
The commuter service, which carries passengers between Oxford and central London and is operated by Stagecoach, has rolled out Wi-Fi to its 25 vehicles using a Wi-Fi and a 3G network -- the former supplied by Moovera Networks, the latter by mobile operator Vodafone.
The service is on offer to Oxford Tube passengers following a three-month trial, which saw 7,000 travellers use it for an average of 41 minutes per session.
Those logging on will be connected to Vodafone's HSDPA network, for speeds of some 1.4Mbps, via Moovera's Wi-Fi Moovbox, which will transmit connectivity around the vehicles.
Other business traveller favourites to have installed Wi-Fi for users include GNER, the Heathrow Express and Virgin Trains.
Courtesy of CNET News UK
The commuter service, which carries passengers between Oxford and central London, has rolled out Wi-Fi to its 25 vehicles using a Wi-Fi and a 3G network.
The Oxford Tube will now offer coach commuters the chance to get online thanks to a Wi-Fi/3G connectivity combo.
The commuter service, which carries passengers between Oxford and central London and is operated by Stagecoach, has rolled out Wi-Fi to its 25 vehicles using a Wi-Fi and a 3G network -- the former supplied by Moovera Networks, the latter by mobile operator Vodafone.
The service is on offer to Oxford Tube passengers following a three-month trial, which saw 7,000 travellers use it for an average of 41 minutes per session.
Those logging on will be connected to Vodafone's HSDPA network, for speeds of some 1.4Mbps, via Moovera's Wi-Fi Moovbox, which will transmit connectivity around the vehicles.
Other business traveller favourites to have installed Wi-Fi for users include GNER, the Heathrow Express and Virgin Trains.
Singapore: One Nation Under Wi-Fi
By Michael Kanellos
Courtesy of CNET News
By the end of the year, it will be possible to roam almost anywhere in Singapore and get a wireless signal.
As part of its Intelligent Nation 2015 program, the island nation will be able to boast of countrywide Wi-Fi coverage in a few months, Bill Chang, executive vice president of wireless service provider SingTel, said in a recent interview.
"At the end of the year, Singapore will be one mega hot spot," he said. "They are breaking Singapore into three regions and looking at ways to maximize coverage."
The country had a pretty good head start. The official report released with the unfurling of the Intelligent Nation program pointed out that Singapore already had one public hot spot for every square kilometer at the end of last year. Communication between hot spots will be augmented by mesh networking, according to the Intelligent Nation report. Commercial WiMax--a wireless standard that allows signals to travel over longer distances than those using Wi-Fi--will begin in Singapore by the end of the year, said Chang.
The Intelligent Nation program, officially unveiled last year, seeks to make Singapore a global leader in communications technology in a decade. The country doesn't have the large domestic market, manufacturing base or low costs of places like India and China, so the idea is to focus more on industries with a large intellectual property component, similar to what South Korea and Israel are doing. The program is backed by various government subsidies and incentives.
Other initiatives in the program include digitizing public health records, bringing broadband connections into at least 90 percent of residences, recruiting multinationals to locate their call centers for Asia in the country and in general boosting Singaporean technology exports. The country hopes to add 80,000 information technology jobs through the effort. Another goal is to put computers into 100 percent of homes with school-age children.
This is all good news for SingTel, he added. The 127-year-old company (it started as a telegraph provider back in the days of British colonial rule) has emerged as one of the telecom giants of Asia. In its 2001 fiscal year, SingTel reported revenue of $3.1 billion. Approximately 81 percent of the revenue derived domestically. In fiscal 2005, revenue came to $8.3 billion and 71 percent came from overseas.
"We are Asia's largest multimarket mobile operator," Chang said. "We want to be the king of the hill in Asia rather than spread ourselves too thin."
To expand, the company cuts deals or invests in regional wireless carriers such as Indonesia's Telkomsel and India's Bharti Airtel. Through these alliances SingTel garners about 2.5 million new cellular customers a month with around 800,000 coming from neighboring Indonesia. Along with growing the cellular business, SingTel wants to expand its managed services business.
Singapore is also investing heavily in recruiting biotech companies and U.S. and European scientists to work in the country.
Courtesy of CNET News
By the end of the year, it will be possible to roam almost anywhere in Singapore and get a wireless signal.
As part of its Intelligent Nation 2015 program, the island nation will be able to boast of countrywide Wi-Fi coverage in a few months, Bill Chang, executive vice president of wireless service provider SingTel, said in a recent interview.
"At the end of the year, Singapore will be one mega hot spot," he said. "They are breaking Singapore into three regions and looking at ways to maximize coverage."
The country had a pretty good head start. The official report released with the unfurling of the Intelligent Nation program pointed out that Singapore already had one public hot spot for every square kilometer at the end of last year. Communication between hot spots will be augmented by mesh networking, according to the Intelligent Nation report. Commercial WiMax--a wireless standard that allows signals to travel over longer distances than those using Wi-Fi--will begin in Singapore by the end of the year, said Chang.
The Intelligent Nation program, officially unveiled last year, seeks to make Singapore a global leader in communications technology in a decade. The country doesn't have the large domestic market, manufacturing base or low costs of places like India and China, so the idea is to focus more on industries with a large intellectual property component, similar to what South Korea and Israel are doing. The program is backed by various government subsidies and incentives.
Other initiatives in the program include digitizing public health records, bringing broadband connections into at least 90 percent of residences, recruiting multinationals to locate their call centers for Asia in the country and in general boosting Singaporean technology exports. The country hopes to add 80,000 information technology jobs through the effort. Another goal is to put computers into 100 percent of homes with school-age children.
This is all good news for SingTel, he added. The 127-year-old company (it started as a telegraph provider back in the days of British colonial rule) has emerged as one of the telecom giants of Asia. In its 2001 fiscal year, SingTel reported revenue of $3.1 billion. Approximately 81 percent of the revenue derived domestically. In fiscal 2005, revenue came to $8.3 billion and 71 percent came from overseas.
"We are Asia's largest multimarket mobile operator," Chang said. "We want to be the king of the hill in Asia rather than spread ourselves too thin."
To expand, the company cuts deals or invests in regional wireless carriers such as Indonesia's Telkomsel and India's Bharti Airtel. Through these alliances SingTel garners about 2.5 million new cellular customers a month with around 800,000 coming from neighboring Indonesia. Along with growing the cellular business, SingTel wants to expand its managed services business.
Singapore is also investing heavily in recruiting biotech companies and U.S. and European scientists to work in the country.
Wireless Sensors to Modernize Parking
By Naomi Graychase
Courtesy of Wi-Fi Planet
They can tighten parking policy enforcement—even tell motorists in transit where to find a spot.
According to Tod Dykstra, CEO of Streetline Networks, a young company focused on city infrastructure technology, U.S. cities are missing out on billions of dollars in potential revenue due to ineffective parking policies and enforcement. Dykstra cites studies conducted by the International Parking Institute, the U.S. Census, and other sources, but if you've ever circled the block for an hour looking for a spot so you could run a ten-minute errand downtown—or taken your chances by not putting money in the meter once you finally found a spot—then you know what he's talking about. By implementing its wireless sensor networking technology in the form of Meter Monitors and Vehicle Sensors, Streetline hopes to change all that.
The San Francisco-based company, founded in 2005, recently deployed pilot projects of its CiT (City Infrastructure Technologies) Platform in San Francisco and Los Angeles and has been fielding requests from other major cities across the country. The San Francisco deployment covered 16 city blocks. In Los Angeles, 100 spaces in the Toy District, an area in downtown LA that is known for being particularly tough on parking equipment, are currently being monitored.
"We're working on generating results in these cities that will appeal to other cities," says Dykstra. "We expected to start with smaller cities, but we've gotten so much interest from larger ones that we've been working on those accounts. The products we're building will be easy to expand and roll out for larger cities."
Streetline's products incorporate components from several OEM vendors, including Dust Networks SmartMesh products, which are based on Dust's Time Synchronized Mesh Protocol (TSMP) and provide reliable, low-power wireless connectivity.
Streetline's sensors come in two varieties, Vehicle Sensors, which can tell when a vehicle is physically occupying a space and for how long, and Meter Monitors, which report how much people pay, when and how they pay, how much time remains on a meter, and whether the meter is broken, among other things. The Meter Monitors provide two-way networking to standard, single-space parking meters without requiring wiring or modifications to the meter housings. In most cases, they simply plug into existing meter data ports.
The low-power sensors and monitors, which can run for up to 18 months on one AA battery and last for up to a decade, help cities track usage and vandalism, and provide real-time information about arrivals, departures, and occupancy. The cities use that information to deploy resources more effectively. Since studies show that only about 5 percent of parking violators receive citations, a city that could re-route its meter readers to known problem areas could potentially increase revenues from citations—or increase compliance—significantly. In either case, the city receives a revenue bump.
"The sensors that are networked are completely self-contained," says Dykstra. "One glues to surface of the street. They are inexpensive to deploy. With one, there's some road work involved to protect them from snow plows. We can sense when cars arrive, when they leave, and how long they stayed. We can network them so that you can understand how much people paid, the time remaining, if they are broken, and so forth. We can also add time to the meter over the air so people can pay with a cell phone."
The benefits of the systems include financial rewards, but also policy changes, which Dykstra says will ultimately improve the quality of life for city drivers. The idea being that if violators are abusing parking spots by staying over their limit, then they will be deterred from doing so if citations are issued, thus generating better turnover. Adjusting the pricing of meters based on usage is another technique that can help cure bottlenecks.
"There's less congestion. Less particulate emissions. Parking is a public resource, but it's a constrained resource," says Dkystra. "It's something there isn't a whole lot of so you want to achieve the most access for the most people given your capacity. The purpose is to allow people to get somewhere and do something, and ideally leave, so that other people can use the spot. It creates an economic benefit to the city by increasing sales tax revenue and by creating a more vibrant downtown area."
Standard pricing for the Vehicle Sensors is $300 per space, plus $10 per month for data management; for Meter Monitors, $150 per meter and $10 per month for data management. Dykstra expects that each city will negotiate its own rate, however, based on the volume of its order.
While the Streetline systems don't require access to Wi-Fi, Dykstra points out that in cities where muni wireless is available, a mutually beneficial relationship will result.
"Muni Wi-Fi is potentially great for delivering all sorts of city services that are broadband in nature. The focus of what we're doing is much lower power, but Wi-Fi is totally complimentary and can provide a backbone network for us. Wi-Fi doesn’t need us and we don’t need Wi-Fi, but from the city's point of view, the combination of the two is likely to make a lot of sense. If you get your muni Wi-Fi and you get your Streetline network, then the combination of the two gives you revenue from one side to find applications on the other side. It's a partnership."
In addition to the more broad-minded tactics that cities adopting Streetline's technology can take—more effectively pricing meters and directing enforcement to reduce congestion, generate more revenue, increase turnover, etc.—there is also an appealing potential benefit for drivers.
"We can tell you where the parking is right now," says Dykstra. "Streetline's business isn't delivering to the end user, but I personally have this information in my cell phone right now, so we would publish it in other ways."
While no deal is yet in place, and the deployments need to be more widespread before the information is meaningful, in the not-too-distant future, drivers in LA, San Francisco, and other major cities may be able to check their iPhones, PDAs, or cell phones to find out where the empty parking spots are, which would spare them the headache—and additional exhaust emissions—of circling the block.
Courtesy of Wi-Fi Planet
They can tighten parking policy enforcement—even tell motorists in transit where to find a spot.
According to Tod Dykstra, CEO of Streetline Networks, a young company focused on city infrastructure technology, U.S. cities are missing out on billions of dollars in potential revenue due to ineffective parking policies and enforcement. Dykstra cites studies conducted by the International Parking Institute, the U.S. Census, and other sources, but if you've ever circled the block for an hour looking for a spot so you could run a ten-minute errand downtown—or taken your chances by not putting money in the meter once you finally found a spot—then you know what he's talking about. By implementing its wireless sensor networking technology in the form of Meter Monitors and Vehicle Sensors, Streetline hopes to change all that.
The San Francisco-based company, founded in 2005, recently deployed pilot projects of its CiT (City Infrastructure Technologies) Platform in San Francisco and Los Angeles and has been fielding requests from other major cities across the country. The San Francisco deployment covered 16 city blocks. In Los Angeles, 100 spaces in the Toy District, an area in downtown LA that is known for being particularly tough on parking equipment, are currently being monitored.
"We're working on generating results in these cities that will appeal to other cities," says Dykstra. "We expected to start with smaller cities, but we've gotten so much interest from larger ones that we've been working on those accounts. The products we're building will be easy to expand and roll out for larger cities."
Streetline's products incorporate components from several OEM vendors, including Dust Networks SmartMesh products, which are based on Dust's Time Synchronized Mesh Protocol (TSMP) and provide reliable, low-power wireless connectivity.
Streetline's sensors come in two varieties, Vehicle Sensors, which can tell when a vehicle is physically occupying a space and for how long, and Meter Monitors, which report how much people pay, when and how they pay, how much time remains on a meter, and whether the meter is broken, among other things. The Meter Monitors provide two-way networking to standard, single-space parking meters without requiring wiring or modifications to the meter housings. In most cases, they simply plug into existing meter data ports.
The low-power sensors and monitors, which can run for up to 18 months on one AA battery and last for up to a decade, help cities track usage and vandalism, and provide real-time information about arrivals, departures, and occupancy. The cities use that information to deploy resources more effectively. Since studies show that only about 5 percent of parking violators receive citations, a city that could re-route its meter readers to known problem areas could potentially increase revenues from citations—or increase compliance—significantly. In either case, the city receives a revenue bump.
"The sensors that are networked are completely self-contained," says Dykstra. "One glues to surface of the street. They are inexpensive to deploy. With one, there's some road work involved to protect them from snow plows. We can sense when cars arrive, when they leave, and how long they stayed. We can network them so that you can understand how much people paid, the time remaining, if they are broken, and so forth. We can also add time to the meter over the air so people can pay with a cell phone."
The benefits of the systems include financial rewards, but also policy changes, which Dykstra says will ultimately improve the quality of life for city drivers. The idea being that if violators are abusing parking spots by staying over their limit, then they will be deterred from doing so if citations are issued, thus generating better turnover. Adjusting the pricing of meters based on usage is another technique that can help cure bottlenecks.
"There's less congestion. Less particulate emissions. Parking is a public resource, but it's a constrained resource," says Dkystra. "It's something there isn't a whole lot of so you want to achieve the most access for the most people given your capacity. The purpose is to allow people to get somewhere and do something, and ideally leave, so that other people can use the spot. It creates an economic benefit to the city by increasing sales tax revenue and by creating a more vibrant downtown area."
Standard pricing for the Vehicle Sensors is $300 per space, plus $10 per month for data management; for Meter Monitors, $150 per meter and $10 per month for data management. Dykstra expects that each city will negotiate its own rate, however, based on the volume of its order.
While the Streetline systems don't require access to Wi-Fi, Dykstra points out that in cities where muni wireless is available, a mutually beneficial relationship will result.
"Muni Wi-Fi is potentially great for delivering all sorts of city services that are broadband in nature. The focus of what we're doing is much lower power, but Wi-Fi is totally complimentary and can provide a backbone network for us. Wi-Fi doesn’t need us and we don’t need Wi-Fi, but from the city's point of view, the combination of the two is likely to make a lot of sense. If you get your muni Wi-Fi and you get your Streetline network, then the combination of the two gives you revenue from one side to find applications on the other side. It's a partnership."
In addition to the more broad-minded tactics that cities adopting Streetline's technology can take—more effectively pricing meters and directing enforcement to reduce congestion, generate more revenue, increase turnover, etc.—there is also an appealing potential benefit for drivers.
"We can tell you where the parking is right now," says Dykstra. "Streetline's business isn't delivering to the end user, but I personally have this information in my cell phone right now, so we would publish it in other ways."
While no deal is yet in place, and the deployments need to be more widespread before the information is meaningful, in the not-too-distant future, drivers in LA, San Francisco, and other major cities may be able to check their iPhones, PDAs, or cell phones to find out where the empty parking spots are, which would spare them the headache—and additional exhaust emissions—of circling the block.
VIA Rail's Western Stations Introduce Free Wi-Fi Service
By Glenn Fleishman
Courtesy of Wi-Fi Net News
Travellers Can Now Stay Connected During Cross-Canada Journey
VIA Rail Canada is pleased to announce that free Wi-Fi access is now available to passengers travelling on its western transcontinental train. The installation of Wi-Fi access at four major stations enroute, a first for transcontinental trains in North America, means passengers will be able to stay connected each day of the three-day journey. VIA's Canadian departs Vancouver and Toronto three times weekly on a three-day, three-night journey through Canada's heartland.
Winnipeg's Union Station was the first VIA station in the west to be
Wi-Fi equipped. With Edmonton, the last of the stations to be equipped,
installation at each of VIA's major terminal stops along the Canadian's route
is complete. Thanks to the service available through local internet providers,
VIA customers can now "log on" in Vancouver, Jasper, Edmonton and Winnipeg.
Passengers will now be able to stay in touch with family members to
"check-in," or simply relay their trans-Canada experience. The service is free
to VIA's Silver & Blue (first-class) passengers.
Wi-Fi service is currently also available on a pay-per-use basis in most
major stations, on-board trains, and in premier-class Panorama Lounges in
VIA's Windsor to Québec City Corridor.
"The installation of wireless access in VIA's western stations is
significant because it displays VIA's commitment to adding value to customers
who travel on this train," said Jim Kleiner, VIA's Director of Customer
Experience in Vancouver. "Many of our customers on-board come from all over
the world, and being able to stay connected with family throughout their trip
may provide a reassurance that allows them to completely relax and enjoy our
service and the changing landscape."
Passengers whose computers are equipped with Wi-Fi technology or who use
personal digital assistants will automatically have the service available when
they turn on their devices.
In addition to VIA's Wi-Fi service, travellers have access to online
bookings. This will ease the process of travelling at every single step.
As Canada's national passenger rail service, VIA Rail connects the entire
world to the West's vibrant tourism industry. With more than 700 employees in
Western Canada, VIA is dedicated to improving the quality of passenger
service. From Northern Manitoba, across Saskatchewan and Alberta, to British
Columbia's Pacific Rim, VIA serves more than 100 communities. VIA continues to
develop, market and deliver services to meet the needs of Western Canadians,
in partnership with the people, communities and businesses served by passenger
rail. For more information on VIA Rail Canada's products, services and fares,
contact VIA Rail Canada at 1 888 VIA-RAIL (842-7245), TTY 1 800 268-9503
(hearing impaired), visit viarail.ca. or contact your local travel agent.
Courtesy of Wi-Fi Net News
Travellers Can Now Stay Connected During Cross-Canada Journey
VIA Rail Canada is pleased to announce that free Wi-Fi access is now available to passengers travelling on its western transcontinental train. The installation of Wi-Fi access at four major stations enroute, a first for transcontinental trains in North America, means passengers will be able to stay connected each day of the three-day journey. VIA's Canadian departs Vancouver and Toronto three times weekly on a three-day, three-night journey through Canada's heartland.
Winnipeg's Union Station was the first VIA station in the west to be
Wi-Fi equipped. With Edmonton, the last of the stations to be equipped,
installation at each of VIA's major terminal stops along the Canadian's route
is complete. Thanks to the service available through local internet providers,
VIA customers can now "log on" in Vancouver, Jasper, Edmonton and Winnipeg.
Passengers will now be able to stay in touch with family members to
"check-in," or simply relay their trans-Canada experience. The service is free
to VIA's Silver & Blue (first-class) passengers.
Wi-Fi service is currently also available on a pay-per-use basis in most
major stations, on-board trains, and in premier-class Panorama Lounges in
VIA's Windsor to Québec City Corridor.
"The installation of wireless access in VIA's western stations is
significant because it displays VIA's commitment to adding value to customers
who travel on this train," said Jim Kleiner, VIA's Director of Customer
Experience in Vancouver. "Many of our customers on-board come from all over
the world, and being able to stay connected with family throughout their trip
may provide a reassurance that allows them to completely relax and enjoy our
service and the changing landscape."
Passengers whose computers are equipped with Wi-Fi technology or who use
personal digital assistants will automatically have the service available when
they turn on their devices.
In addition to VIA's Wi-Fi service, travellers have access to online
bookings. This will ease the process of travelling at every single step.
As Canada's national passenger rail service, VIA Rail connects the entire
world to the West's vibrant tourism industry. With more than 700 employees in
Western Canada, VIA is dedicated to improving the quality of passenger
service. From Northern Manitoba, across Saskatchewan and Alberta, to British
Columbia's Pacific Rim, VIA serves more than 100 communities. VIA continues to
develop, market and deliver services to meet the needs of Western Canadians,
in partnership with the people, communities and businesses served by passenger
rail. For more information on VIA Rail Canada's products, services and fares,
contact VIA Rail Canada at 1 888 VIA-RAIL (842-7245), TTY 1 800 268-9503
(hearing impaired), visit viarail.ca. or contact your local travel agent.
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