An important London Underground station, the St. Pancras International station, will have free high-speed high-capacity WiFi coverage soon, to be provided by WiFi Metropolis. The deal was signed by HS1, owners of the station, with the WiFi provider to improve coverage over both domestic and international areas of the station. By the coming autumn the capacity will be improved to 20 times the present capacity. The service would be free, funded by advertising revenue. The station will also release a special app for HS1, that will offer special deals, travel information and the station’s brief history.
WiFi Metropolis will have to fix 54 multi-radio access points on an improved fibre ring, removing the Xirrus 24 single radio unit presently serving, to boost capacity from 200 Mbps to 1 Gbps. The new capacity can help about 7,000 commuters to get wirelessly streamed HD content, while at the station. Already, Virgin Media has provided Wfi service to 137 stations of the London Underground. This roll-out of free WiFi here will further enhance the experience of people staying online while travelling.
The commercial director of HS1, Wendy Spinks, said the time was right to boost the WiFi capacity as an increasing number of travellers are using mobile devices on-the-go to access information for work, convenience or entertainment.
