Paris (AFP) – The passengers of the TGV will finally be able to surf the internet during their trip, first between Paris and Lyon, where free wifi is available as early as this week, and then gradually on the whole of the high-speed train lines by the end of 2017.
“on board Internet, the customers were waiting, it has become a basic need,” commented Tuesday, Rachel Picard, executive director of Voyages SNCF, during the presentation to the press of this service, acclaimed to 80% in the customer surveys.
Tested for several weeks on the Paris/Lyon, and baptized TGV Connect, it will officially be available from Thursday.
however, of late, because in 2015, the president of the SNCF Guillaume Pepy promised internet in the “all French trains” by the end of 2016. Blame it on the “purchasing process” of the system and connection to “the competition to equip the oars”, taking longer than expected, he justified, questioned by AFP.
In 2017, all high-speed train lines will be connected: Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Lille, Rennes, and Marseille. Other trains will follow: “90% of the train journeys will be covered by 2020,” assured Guillaume Pepy.
If that is the end of the web page that takes hours to appear, not issue to enjoy the journey to watch the latest movie releases.
The choice of SNCF is “first to offer free internet access”, pointed out Guillaume Pepy, adding that”it must be borne in mind that 550 people may not, at the same time, decide to download a movie, it goes into a no wifi network, no 3G/4G network”.
And, “once one has reached the quota of data (permitted), the flow is slowed down,” adds Peter Matuchet, marketing director of Voyages SNCF.
- a Third attempt to -
as the train is launched at 300 km/h, the portal of connection indicates on a map where is the train, and what is the quality of the bandwidth – good, average or poor according to the portions of the line. Another page offers to order their meals, with the option to have it delivered without getting up from his seat, or even to order a taxi or book a rental car on arrival.
“This is the third attempt in the TGV, so we hope that it will be good”, smiled Rachel Picard.
After a first test on the line Paris-Vendôme in 2004, only with the 2G, and a second on the line Paris to Strasbourg in 2010, which was using satellite technology – and proposed that the extra charge for internet – this time, a system using mobile networks (3G/4G, and relaying them via the wi-fi on board trains, which has been selected.
“We ride at 300 km/h, that’s the difficulty,” stressed Rachel Picard.
at this speed, the passage of relay between two terminals 3G/4G is done every 15 seconds. Thus, the telephone operator Orange has installed terminals every two or three miles along the high-speed rail line, to pick up the wifi signal.
Installed on the drive bar, “it has eight antennas that pick up the signal. Then this signal is the aggregates, and through a network of optical fibers, ( … ), the fact circulate throughout the train”. Then, in each car, four wifi antennae transmit this signal to the users, ” said Pierre Matuchet.
“It gets the signal 3G/4G and turns it into wifi, to stabilize the signal, to make it more pure”, he added.
For the station, the equipment of the 300 TGV trains circulating in France, which lasts a week for each one, will cost 350,000 euros per ream, or 100 million euros in total. Orange does not communicate the amount of the investment.
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