This article covers my current reports on simultaneously using VIA Rail Canada’s passenger cellular net provider while traveling from Toronto to Montreal. These offerings have become increasingly popular over the last few years. VIA became an early adopter, having launched its preliminary cell net carrier in 2006, after which it upgraded in 2010 and 2011.
VIA Rail Canada became one of the first rail agencies worldwide to provide mobile net offerings to its passengers in 2006. The carrier is supplied on its forty-two trains in its crucial Canada hall among Windsor, Ontario, and Quebec City, masking approximately seven hundred miles. The provider used a combination of satellite and 2G mobile connections at the outset. In 2010, the service turned over to apply a pair of 3G cellular connections, abandoning the satellite connection completely. Service becomes fair to true according to debts I have discovered on the net, blogs, and Twitter.
A complete forklift improvement was accomplished between 2011 and 2012. The new carrier is mounted on the 42-train fleet. It is produced from 6 aggregated HSPA+ mobile connections, an onboard server, a controller to educate passengers on access factors (B, G), and a wireless N mesh network connecting all coaches.
VIA is advertising and marketing this provider as a part of its “Human Way to Travel” marketing campaign subject matter, stressing the carrier as effective use of journey time to work or for enjoyment inclusive of social networking, reserving activities at destination, finding facts on what to do upon arrival at the destination, or simply studying online newspapers or surfing the internet.
I have had the opportunity to travel commonly on commercial enterprise and for delight on VIA Rail, and I have always been impressed with the general overall performance of the cellular network service, which is currently supplied on a complimentary basis. After connecting your device to the wifi, get admission to the point where you’ve presented a preference of languages for the provider: English or French. You then should receive some terms and situations upon which you have been introduced to a landing web page regarding the services offered by VIA Rail. From there, you may navigate the net.
I could paint through a VPN to my office servers and edit up-to-date content files, spreadsheets, and presentations. Also, accessing webmail structures, including Gmail, is a breeze. Browsing the web is likewise pretty rapid. I have also completed gaining access to streaming song offerings such as AccuRadio and Tunein without a hiccup. I have viewed and updated my net picture albums on Picasa without a problem. I have also achieved a few online buying and online banking. I have even seen passengers using Skype to make video calls. Streaming video is hit and omitted, but the surrounding websites, including YouTube, are blocked for overall performance, bandwidth maintenance, and awesome user enjoyment. This is comprehensible in shared cell surroundings, where bandwidth available from mobile networks is a restricting factor. However, you can also access news media video websites, including major everyday papers like CNN or CBC. But as I stated, motion pictures could succeed and pass over the affair.
So, as a consumer enjoys, this provider is pretty proper for a loose provider. How long will it be value unfastened even though? As may be imagined, offering this provider may be steeply priced. VIA estimates that over 20,000 passengers use the provider, and visitors reach over one terabyte in line with a week on common. Twitter and Facebook comments are usually superb, helping my own non-public experience.
As with any cell network, there are some zones where performance may also drop off. One location is along Lake Ontario, where performance goes from superb to appropriate or truthful. But at 100 MPH, these areas soon zoom by, and overall performance choices up pretty speedy. To VIA’s credit, they suggest those acknowledged regions of their statistics about the provider and on a map published on their web page and in their passenger mag. Technical support is available nicely over the smartphone and via text message.
Most trains I have taken are three or four automobiles long, and I would estimate that about half of the passengers are using the carrier. This could be anywhere from 80 to 100 connected customers on a complete train. I have taken numerous measurements with tools, including Speedtest. This gives you an idea of what a person revels in. My common download velocity measured is about 2.75mbps with peaks of 5mbps and higher. Upload speeds average around 1mbps and peaks of 3mbps do arise. I achieved these measurements with a Windows pc pc and my Samsung Android tablet. These speeds are good enough for what the service is intended to be. According to VIA, it is high-quality and used “for web browsing and e-mail,” but you can accomplish much more with it.
So, the VIA Rail wireless internet carrier is usually reliable and rapid. VIA has recently brought a media portal server to some of its trains to praise the wifi internet carrier. This portal affords daily news highlights, some rerun TV shows, and documentaries. This indicates VIA’s commitment to developing and enhancing this service for its passengers.
A bit about the writer Mike Gaudreau: he resides in Montreal. He owns the blog Boomer Technology [http://www.Boomer-technology.Com/]. He is a retired IT and Telecom senior supervisor with 38 years of experience. Since he is enthusiastic about technology, he is determined to remain active in developing Boomer Technology to offer generation information to the boomer generation.
I have been capable of working on documents through a VPN connection to my office servers, enhancing and updating text files, spreadsheets, and displays. Also, accessing webmail structures, including Gmail, is a breeze. Browsing the net is likewise quite fast. Other matters I have performed are accessing streaming track services, including AccuRadio and Tunein, without a hiccup. I have viewed and updated my internet picture albums on Picasa without a problem. I have also completed some online purchasing and online banking. I even have visible passengers using Skype video calling. Streaming video is hit and miss; however, in this environment, websites, including YouTube, are blocked for overall performance reasons, to keep bandwidth, and to hold a terrific user revel. This is understandable in these shared mobile surroundings, where bandwidth from cell networks is restricted. However, you could get entry to news media video websites, which include Everyday Papers, CNN, and CBC. But as I mentioned, movies may be successful and leave out affairs.
