Canadian Wi-Fi service provider Spotnik Mobile announced
yesterday that its service is now up and running on VIA Rail trains
running between Montreal and Quebec City. I've used a VIA Rail train service
before, albeit from a different provider, but using the same basic network
architecture and it's pretty good. A satellite-based service takes the
network from the train into space and back down to a base station which
plugs into an Internet backbone. On the train itself, the satellite signal
is fed to a plain-vanilla Wi-Fi base station and the signal is then
broadcast to Wi-Fi equipped devices on board that train. So far, the service
is available only to travellers in VIA first-class cabins. And, even better,
the service is free to travellers for the time being.
VIA also offers a similar service in its first-class cars between Toronto
and Montreal and has either launched or will soon be launching a service on
runs between Ottawa and Montreal.