Wi-Fi investment pays off for transit agencies large and small

[marmar]

Wi-Fi investment pays off for transit agencies large and small
Apr 29, 2011 10:18 AM, By Glenn Bischoff


Federal, state and local public-transportation agencies all seem to have two things in common these days: they want to increase ridership, and they believe that providing wireless broadband connectivity to their passengers is the way to do it.

“Connectivity is part of making transit more appealing and getting people out of their cars and onto trains and buses,” said Jim Baker, founder and CEO of Xentrans, a San Francisco–based consultancy that specializes in communications for mass-transit agencies. Baker spoke on the topic during an educational session held in March during the International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE) in Las Vegas.

Another speaker — Richard Bertalan, communications system manager for the Santa Clara (Calif.) Valley Transportation Authority, which serves the city of San Jose and the surrounding area — agreed.

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The potential fly in the ointment concerns multimedia applications, which eat up an enormous amount of bandwidth, according to Clay Whitehead, an engineering manager for Motorola Solutions, who also spoke during the session. He cited a few examples:

* The average smartphone user on a 3G network consumes 400 Mb of bandwidth per month.
* The average iPhone user in New York City and San Francisco eats up 800 Mb per month.
* 4.7 Gb of bandwidth is needed to watch a DVD-quality movie streamed from Netflix.com.
* 5.8 Gb of bandwidth per month is required to watch a daily sitcom streamed from Hulu.com.

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The complete piece is at: http://urgentcomm.com/networks_and_systems/wifi/news/wifi-transit-investments-20110429/