Wi-Fi on BART
Published by James June 13th, 2007 in San FranciscoFrom a very nice man, new dad, FM Author, and the king of wireless content, Glenn Fleishman writes,
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system that links up much of the San Francisco Bay Area is in the first phases of a Wi-Fi rollout: As reported on this site earlier, through intelligence from veteran Wi-Fi guru Matt Peterson, Wi-Fi Rail has been turning on Wi-Fi at BART stations without any publicity. The company says that 1,000 riders have used the Wi-Fi service so far, with more each day (look for a spike today, no?).
The current test involves four stations in San Francisco (Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, Civic Center). The test could lead to Wi-Fi Rail getting a contract to install service through the system’s stations. They will likely charge $10 per day, $30 per month, or $300 per year.
Great news for all the SF commuters.
Orrrr, you can try the veritable off-line BART solution: your trusty pulp magazine. I recommend a New Yorker:
* Foldable
* Lightweight
* Top Notch content filter
And when someone grabs your laptop out of your lap and runs into the closing doors of a Daly City train, you’re only out $3.50 if they grab your New Yorker - top. $.49 if you buy a 2 year subscription.
Or, perhaps, when someone grabs your laptop while running through the closing doors at Daly City, our friends at BART homeland security will be watching live streaming video from all 600 wifi enabled trains over 100 miles of track and spanning multiple counties, pausing for only a moment to note the station name and gather the description of the suspect, then touching a button and grabbing a wifi enabled phone to call the station agent and alert BART police to have the suspect apprehended at the top of the stairs.
Or, someone could grab the tape out of the VCR on the train at the end of the day and you could see if there was any way to identify the thief. That is assuming the train you are on has a VCR and cameras.
It’s almost scary how good it can be. There is absolutely no technological way to provide live video on a high speed rail system without a legit wifi network. 802.11g/n. Hello future, how may you help me? Hook up the line, hook up the cars, hook up the people. game over.
jf
1 to the other JS.
I think the $.49 is for the professional discount subscription. Which is you wait long enough you can get them to mail you that offer.