East coast wifi - no longer free

becky_rtw

Hi all!

Just a heads up for those who use East Coast Trains - as of Monday wifi for standard class passengers is now free only for 15 minutes!

Fees now apply starting £4.95 for 60 mins :eek::eek::eek:

Wifi is free still for 1st class passengers.
For those like me who travel on this service regularly there doesnt *seem* to be a long term option for payment so I need to investigate that...

Here's the marketing gumpf from East Coast about it:
http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/on-board-our-trains/In-your-coach/WiFi---Internet-Facilities/

Improved service I'm all for, but personally I think its pretty cheeky to charge, but then I guess it only replicates Virgin trains... at least it happened after my 6 hour trip Glasgow a few weeks ago

Jeff_Bridges_hair

It was always to be paid for when GNER first installed it for use in standard. It was NXEC who dropped the payment charge so its just reverting back to normal.

becky_rtw

I've been using the service for about 2 years every other weekend and its always been free...its annoying because I work during that time. I'm not adverse to paying a small fee - I just think £4.95 is a lot!

But it was mostly a heads up in case anyone was planning on work during a long trip and didnt know.

The line is generally loss making, so I guess they have to find something to charge for to get the governments money back

Livingthedream

I know it's meant to be a free service, but every time I try to use it after Edinburgh going south there's so many other people using it as well, that the speed is down to a snail's pace, even surfing the net can be frustrating.

Not happy that I will have to pay for the service, but at least I'll be able to use it whilst travelling and not spend half the journey waiting for webpages to open.

There was a rumour that when buying tickets online from the East Coast Website you were going to get the option to buy internet at a discounted rate for that journey, hope its true?

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Livingthedream wrote: »

I know it's meant to be a free service, but every time I try to use it after Edinburgh going south there's so many other people using it as well, that the speed is down to a snail's pace, even surfing the net can be frustrating.

Not happy that I will have to pay for the service, but at least I'll be able to use it whilst travelling and not spend half the journey waiting for webpages to open.

There was a rumour that when buying tickets online from the East Coast Website you were going to get the option to buy internet at a discounted rate for that journey, hope its true?

The throttling of the speed has been a problem for them and i think its just going to be better for them to charge rather then increase bandwidth. i think they still sell the internet vouchers but been a while since ive booked with them if im honest.

flyingscotno1

Livingthedream wrote: »

I know it's meant to be a free service, but every time I try to use it after Edinburgh going south there's so many other people using it as well, that the speed is down to a snail's pace, even surfing the net can be frustrating.

Not happy that I will have to pay for the service, but at least I'll be able to use it whilst travelling and not spend half the journey waiting for webpages to open.

There was a rumour that when buying tickets online from the East Coast Website you were going to get the option to buy internet at a discounted rate for that journey, hope its true?

Totally agree. I've tried to get an e-mail leaving London and it was a complete nightmare. Reload 5 times to get anywhere. Only happened when it was made free so makes sense to go back to charging.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Just get a decent phone (ie running Android) and tether it to your laptop.

keithnic_2

Don't mind paying as long as we get a decent connection. Recently its just been complete rubbish. £9.95 though is a bit steep for more than one hour.

neilmcl

keithnic wrote: »

Don't mind paying as long as we get a decent connection. Recently its just been complete rubbish. £9.95 though is a bit steep for more than one hour.

I believe it was £4.95 per hour. Also, what would happen if you simply reconnect every 15 mins or less, could you avoid the payment?

Livingthedream

neilmcl wrote: »

Also, what would happen if you simply reconnect every 15 mins or less, could you avoid the payment?

At the moment, you have to log on to get the free service, so perhaps this login will only allow 15 min per day? or it could be by Mac address filtering?

Only time will tell, but both the above options could easily be worked around.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

PAYG dongle on 3 network works fine so i have just been told - though obviously not in the tunnels