March 17, 2010

Amtrak is Finally Offering WiFi

Every time I take the train from Providence to New York (at least once a month), I lament that there is no WiFi on Amtrak’s Acela trains, even though the lowly MBTA (commuter train) offers it.  So imagine my thrill when I boarded on Monday night to see that Amtrak is now offering WiFi on the Acela Express.  But with the good there is always the bad, so here are the pros and cons.

What I love About WiFi on the Acela:

• It is free!! This means I can cancel my $60 datacard subscription that I mostly use on the train and get rid of the piece of crap data card that constantly needed new software updates installed (at 1 hour an install) and often wasn’t recognized
• It is (usually) always on. Unlike the 3G data connection, WiFi service shouldn’t drop, providing a much smoother working experience
• They are also offering it in some stations (good for those delays)
• It is faster  — both to connect and data speed

What I don’t like:

• It isn’t wholly reliable, but neither was the datacard and frankly, the percent uptime on the WiFi is beating the data card any day
• It can be painfully slow — it was great on Monday, today on a more crowded train it is lagging.  Not sure if this trend will continue
• It blocks certain sites to protect fellow passengers from questionable content and also to protect their network from data hogs.  But I don’t get why the Crisp Wireless site would be blocked as a spammy site — it is a corporate site with a little Flash is all

Overall, many, many thanks Amtrak! Next, can you work on the food?