Midlands buses get free Wi-Fi

Independent bus operator Trent Barton has equipped eight of its 270 fleet of coaches with a free Wi-Fi service for commuters.

The buses, which are used to ferry commuters from Nottingham to Derby, have been fitted with a Wi-Fi hub supplied by Moovera Networks to deliver 3.6Mbps connectivity over Vodafone's High Speed Packet Access 3G network.

The service, which is free to commuters, piggybacks on an Ethernet in-bus network used to support CCTV, telematics and remote GPS fleet monitoring.

Trent Barton commercial manager Mark Greesley said in a statement: "By putting Wi-Fi hotspots on our vehicles we're offering passengers a way to make the most of the 40-minute journey. The service offers us not only the managed Wi-Fi service but the ability in the future to connect other systems such as ticketing and security over the Internet to our operations centre."