PAYG to get free Wifi on London Underground

peachyprice

Hi folks, we've been trying to work out the best way of getting WiFi on LU for my OH (he works for LU so will get alot of use out of it)

At the moment he's on Tesco mobile with the Blackberry add-on, but he would have to pay Virgin to use wifi, £15 per month, if he can get a good PAYG deal with EE, Voda, Orange or T-mobile it will be free. It's only free to VM pay monthly customers.

I can't find anything on EE, Orange or T-mobile about it, but the Voda website say's it's free if you have a PAYG package with data included, so, we think the best deal is:

Voda PAYG sim
Top-up £10m
Opt in to Blackberry Freebee which includes 100mb data
Get wifi for free

Am I missing something obvious, or any other suggestions?

redux

If he works there, and needs to use wifi for work, surely it will be free to staff?

peachyprice

redux wrote: »

If he works there, and needs to use wifi for work, surely it will be free to staff?

LU don't have wifi, it's wifi for public access they have in stations. He doesn't need it for work, he uses it during his breaks and before his shift at work. Which is why he doesn't want to pay any extra for it

balletshoes

Does he use his blackberry for anything else except bbm/internet browsing etc? The reason I'm asking is, my daughter has a blackberry on payg with T-mobile, and they have a blackberry booster you can pay for, its £20 but gives you 6 months of bbm/browsing/etc etc. My daughter uses whatsapp to text me, so the only thing that costs her any of her payg credit is when she has to make a call.

peachyprice

He uses it for email and BBM'ing me and DD.

TBH, I find the t-mobile website so damn infuriating, I lost patience trying to find out whether they're even going to do Underground wifi, let alone how much it might cost :rotfl:

gjchester

peachyprice wrote: »

He uses it for email and BBM'ing me and DD.

TBH, I find the t-mobile website so damn infuriating, I lost patience trying to find out whether they're even going to do Underground wifi, let alone how much it might cost :rotfl:

Find someone you know on Virgin Media and ask them nicely to set up an email account on VM for him so he has a VM logon, I do that for a friend and he gives me access to his BT fon details in exchange...

Im_just_careful

I guess that all you would need is to know someone with a T-Mobile PAYG SIM

On the EE website it says "If you're an active EE, T-Mobile or Orange mobile customer then just text EEWIFI to 9527 and we’ll send you a password to access the service when you next go on the Underground."

Unlike Vodafone, it doesn't seem you need to be a contract customer to get the WiFi.

buglawton

It works like this: In order to access the free wifi you visit a site and log in. Try this on a hurried crowded platform.

The timing is calculated so that by the time you have logged in to that site, checked the connection is actually working, your train arrives, you disappear into a tunnel and it all disconnects.

It is technically feasible to put WiFi or 3g into underground trains - yes even for our constricted tube trains which have the narrowest tunnels in the world.

But not cheaply enough for any get-rich-quick company to be interested.

peachyprice

Im_just_careful wrote: »

I guess that all you would need is to know someone with a T-Mobile PAYG SIM

On the EE website it says "If you're an active EE, T-Mobile or Orange mobile customer then just text EEWIFI to 9527 and we’ll send you a password to access the service when you next go on the Underground."

Unlike Vodafone, it doesn't seem you need to be a contract customer to get the WiFi.

Thanks, I didn't find that info on t-mobile, should have looked on EE

It's Virgin you need to be a contract customer for, Vodafone you can be PAYG.

macman

The possibility of bombs on trains being remotely triggered by phones is another reason that TFL were less than keen on introducing mobile access onto trains themselves, as opposed to just in stations. After 7/7, that's hardly surprising.

Roger1

I just had this update in an e-mail from TfL:

TfL wrote:

I am writing to let you know that WiFi services have now been rolled out to over 100 Tube stations and that the payment model has changed.

Everyone with a WiFi enabled device can check for our latest travel information for free through the Virgin Media portal when they connect to WiFi.

If you are a Virgin Media, Vodafone, EE, T‑Mobile or Orange customer, you can access the Internet on WiFi for no extra cost.* You will need to register with your provider through the Virgin Media portal the first time you pick up the signal in a WiFi enabled station. The signal is available in ticket halls, corridors and on platforms, although not in tunnels.

If you are not a customer of one of the above, you will be able to use WiFi by purchasing a Virgin Media WiFi Pass.

It doesn't immediately seem to differentiate between contract and PAYG.

Further info at tfl.gov.uk/wifi
Map of wifi stations at http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/corporate/wifi-map-jan.pdf