Greyhound, owned by Scotland-based transport giant FirstGroup, has direct services from London to Southampton and London to Portsmouth with forty journeys each way, each day. The free WiFi hotspot service will provide passengers with internet access at speeds up to several megabits per second, using a 3G HSPA network connection from Vodafone.
In addition to free WiFi, passengers will benefit from at-seat power sockets, reclining leather seats and complimentary newspapers. Fares start at just £1 plus 50p booking fee.
FirstGroup is evaluating plans to roll out new Greyhound UK services from 2010. "Despite our low fare prices we want to offer our customer the very highest level of amenities on board the new Greyhound services," said Alex Warner, managing director at Greyhound UK. "WiFi is becoming increasingly popular on public transport – indeed our research suggests that that Internet connectivity is a high priority for our customers. FirstGroup has installed Icomera’s mobile WiFi hotspot technology on many other UK routes, and it has proved popular as well as reliable."
The Moovbox M200 Mobile Broadband Gateway acts as a bridge between a vehicle and high speed cellular data networks including 3G/HSPA, EV-DO and WiMAX, providing WiFi access and an Ethernet-based local area network (LAN) for connecting on-board systems such as CCTV and passenger information systems. The M200 also has integrated GPS receiver for real time automatic vehicle location (AVL) via the web-based MoovManage service