Free Wi-Fi trial at Circular Quay – will you use it?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 08 September 2010 00:14

Your IT - Mobility

A three month trial of free Wi-Fi at the Circular Quay train station to end in November 2010 follows the successful launch of a free and paid Wi-Fi service on the Manly Ferry, but competes with the popularity of phone data plans and wireless USB modems.

Free Wi-Fi has never been as popular in Australia as it is in the US, but despite the ever cheaper pricing of mobile data plans, free Wi-Fi locations slowly continue arriving.

The latest is at the Circular Quay train station at the harbour side of Sydney’s CBD, nestled in between the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and the equally iconic Sydney Opera House.

Here, on platforms 1 and 2, notebook, netbook, smartphone and smart tablet owners are now able to access CityRail’s free Wi-Fi service for a 20 minute period in the morning and another 20 minute period in the afternoon, with a maximum download limit of 50 megabytes.

Presumably this 50MB limit is over both 20 minute sessions, CityRail’s press release does not make it clear.

Minister for Transport John Robertson says the trail will run until the 30th of November, and will allow commuters to check emails, surf the web, download a small app or two and do whatever it is they can do on the Internet within the 20 minute and 50 megabyte limits.

The time and file size limits make the downloading of legal and illegal digital media an impractical or even impossible affair, something CityRail has no doubt done to avoid issues of illegal downloads and abuse of the service, so it’s really a “free” way to get your digital info fix, be it email, websites and other digital data.

For those without a data plan or USB modem, tourists, students or anyone who has already gone over his or her data limits, the service could prove handy when they find themselves at Circular Quay train station. I’ve certainly sparingly used free Wi-Fi services when travelling overseas to check emails but always worry about exactly which Wi-Fi hotspot it is I’m connecting to!

And, if you do have a phone data plan or USB modem with plenty of data left, I’m not sure why you’d bother.

Perhaps if the service was available not only at every station and throughout the length of your train journey it would be a fantastic thing, but if not it is, at least, a trial that could one day turn into a network wide Wi-Fi network.

CityRail has been keen to explain how 40,000 people have already “logged on” to the free and paid Wi-Fi service on the Manly Ferry.

This service, delivered over a TomiZone network, sounds similar to the CityRail trial, except that it offers a 30 minute maximum with a 30MB download limit – twice per day, free of charge.

The charges start if you want a 60 minute service with 60MB of data – this will cost you $3.

If you want 24 hours and 160MB of data, it will cost $6.

A 7 day service with 1.2GB of download will cost $30, and if you want a month of service and 3GB of data to download, this will cost $39.95, but at these prices, why wouldn’t you get a USB modem or phone data plan instead?

So, what did Minister for Transport John Robertson say to celebrate the new trial? Please read on to page two…