Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway to get outfitted with WiFi
By Donald Melanson 
posted July 17th 2007 1:38PM
posted July 17th 2007 1:38PM
It looks like Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is the latest to hop on the high-speed wireless (in more ways than one) bandwagon. with it now set to offer WiFi in both its trains and train stations. Apparently, the trains will be outfitted with receivers to pull down 3.5G signals from transmitters in the tunnels, which then gets turned around into plain old WiFi for the passengers on board. While that convenience won't come free, it will be fairly reasonable, costing passengers HK$20 (or $2.50) a day for unlimited use.
[Via Akihabara News]
[Via Akihabara News]
HongKong trains get outfitted with WoW gold farmers, MMO players.
Mass Transit Railway FTW!!
Just how long is the average train ride in Hong Kong?
I would say a typical ride is 25min. It can go up to one hour if you go from one end to the other.
Good point, I normally go on 15-minute rides usually, but still, I travel several times a day.
As living in HK, MTR is very crowded in busy hours. And, you should not stay in the MTR area for a very very long period or otherwise you may get penalty fee when exit the gate. Quick checking mail could be good.
This may be more useful for the Airport Express line I supposed, but other wise like you said, I just can't imagine doing anything useful with it say around rush hour in Causeway Bay :-x
I can see a LOT of missed train stops, and paying out more money on trainfares because you stayed on longer than you should!
If you missed, you ride the opposite direction. You don't have to repay your fare. The fare is calculated by where you enter, and where you exit.
not if you go into another zone that you havnt paid for.... true for london anyway.
i havnt riden on the hongkong railway
Alex, if you travel into a different zone on the London Tube you can just take the train heading the opposite direction on the other platform without getting charged for penalty, unless you leave the gates of course.
Besides, you should come and check out Hong Kong - MTR is waaaay better than the Tube (not being cocky or anything). The Tube is way too small, rough and unreliable.
Fun if you commute from Tung Chung to Central (very roughly Flushing to dunno, somewhere downtown Manhattan). Otherwise the average train ride is pretty short. The cabins are also less crowded than the New York, London or Paris equivalents.
You won't pay more if you missed your stop - just get the train heading the other way. You'll be charged when you actually get out of the paid areas - and you don't need to go out to switch trains.
Yea that is a steal. You can also have JingJing and Chacha watch over your every move!
Hong Kong is not subject to internet censorship, or most of the censorship mainland China is subject to. We follow the British Colonial Hong Kong Basic Law, not the PRC laws.
Do your research.
ok ching ching chong chong
When you live on the extreme east or west side of the red or green lines, and you need to go to city centers like Mong Kok, Central or "popular" locations, that ride could last 40-50 minutes. Longer if it's rush hour. The MTR is pretty boring, there's not much to do especially if you're standing around with no seat. I'd really enjoy this service myself, at the very least I could check email and not be totally out of contact.
WiFi on the trains for the iPhone. Another place to sell a couple of million more iPhones.
Certainly the Tokyo subway system will respond by installing WiFi in all trains.
http://fotservis.typepad.com/photos/city_of_the_cool_tokyo/crowd.jpg
WiFi on the Octopus will only be a gimmick since the trains get so crowded. Users are also discouraged to whip out their laptop for the same reason. We do get cell signal in the subway already so getting WiFi will only bolster the existing HSDPA usage. Overall, it's great but I think that the data rates for HSDPA are comparable.
What do you mean by wifi on the Octopus card?
Well, WiFi´s great, but THEY haven´t got no IPhone yet...
So the wifi will be slower than your existing HSDPA, since you're sharing one or two connections with everyone else, right?
users of HSDPA shares one base station's bandwidth if they are on the same network
Dude, Hong Kong is not mainland china.
Trams and some buses in Helsinki, Finland have free wlan.
whats the point? I know on the NYC subways, though they aren't usually TOO crowded (except during 5:00 rush), no one has a laptop out. The ride length is too short to actually even do anything. Though, cell phone service is also shitty, so maybe the whole checking mail thing makes sense a little bit.
Would be better suited for Metro-North, after they fix the doors, flooding, A/C, wires, bridges, and toilets.
Wow. That would mean that you could use a wifi handheld device for GPS, skype, etc on the train. Why does everyone assume that it's only good for laptop use?
What do you mean by wifi on the Octopus card?
Sorry, wrong reply.
I think what ET meant to say is Hong Kong doesn't have the same restrictions. No internet censorship, British modeled judicial system etc... ... at least until 2047
Actually, it's not only can use in MTR. You can use this wi-fi service all over HK in any hotspot next to you. This service is actually provided by PCCW. http://www.pccwwifi.com/eng/index.htm
Sweet, it's a PCCW service. At the moment I have a 2-month free trial with Netvigator's Wi-Fi service.
anyone knows if this will also be in KCR?
um... as some others have posted above, this service is not provided by MTR... it is provided by PCCW (a huge communication corp in HK). and it is not only in the MTR stations and trains, it includes other hotspot areas too... i think you guys should edit ur posts.... and currently, it still does not exist in MTR stations and trains.... its only scheduled for July 07, and does not mean it will be availble July 07.
oh, forgot to say that its only avaliable in MTR's Airport Express lines, and not the other lines.
this is pretty lame, considering 3G phones have been available throughout HK for almost 2 yrs now
it's so friggin crowded, and most people only travel for an avg of 20min on the trains that I doubt anyone would want to whip out a laptop