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Olympic tube wi-fi sprints ahead with 44% speed boost

MSPs
Broadbandchoices.co.uk has repeated its broadband speed tests of the first six London Underground stations to offer free Wi-Fi ahead of the Olympics – only to find that speeds have increased since the start of the games to an average of 18.36Mb. The Wi-Fi hotspots, provided by Virgin Media, are now over twice as fast as the average UK landline connection (7.6Mb).

Of the stations tested, Green Park clinched gold with an average download speed of 21.73Mb, closely followed by Euston taking silver with 19.92Mbps and Kings Cross for bronze with 18.49Mb.

Dominic Baliszewski, telecoms expert at Broadbandchoices.co.uk commented “London’s tube Wi-Fi has proved to be an unsung hero of the Olympics – keeping travellers online, in touch and able to watch every nail biting moment of the games even if they’re stuck on the platform instead of at the stadium.

“A 44% boost in broadband speed is extremely impressive, especially considering that the London Underground has had to cope with record numbers of passengers over the last two weeks. However, it is also a shaming contrast with households living in rural areas who are languishing on broadband speeds that can barely stream a 30 second music clip, let alone live footage of Usain Bolt breaking another record.”

Virgin Media’s tube Wi-Fi service is currently free for all passengers to use until the Paralympic games finish, when it will be free exclusively for Virgin Media customers.