Virgin Trains WiFi Review and Speed Test

Virgin Trains have been long boasting about their on-train WiFi but what is it actually like? Is it worth shelling out the £4 an hour for the service on a line that has little phone signal?

Technology

The technology behind it is 3G and WiMAX according to the supplier, Nomad Digital, which allows it to handle remote geographic areas. 

When you cannot get access to 3G signal, WiMAX is used and vice versa. Sadly it seems the 3G equipment used is not sensitive and is a low speed connection.

On arrival at a Carlisle station, the WiFi was stable enough to conduct a quick speed test:
Virgin Train WiFi Performance in Carlisle

Pricing

The pricing is at the expensive end of paid WiFi services which are becoming increasingly rare around the UK with the widespread use of roaming agreements being included with a large percentage of home and mobile phones.

Virgin Trains onboard pricing structure

The system also does not support any roaming partners aside from iPass which is diappointing.

Verdict

Its brilliant in concept but in reality, it lacks reliability and speed to be considered a real solution and seeing as Virgin Media have been giving away free wifi on the tube, it's a shame they cannot take any of that technology forward onto their own branded trains. I would recommend that you save your money and get a mobile broadband connection and a good device like the Huawei E586.

Comments

[Ryan]

Hi,

What do you fix? Out of interest..

Cheers
Ryan