WiFi in Australia

Brisbane's next wireless hotspot?

I regularly catch the train between Brisbane and the Gold Coast for work, which is a trip that takes a little over an hour one way. Needless to say, I tend to get a lot of my work done on my laptop between towns. I have a wireless broadband account, but I often don’t get coverage through the Gold Coast half of the trip. This is not surprising considering the train is passing through what is basically farm and swampland – hardly priority areas for a 3G network tower.

Reading the Sunday Mail this weekend however (which is kinda like the Sun-Herald but with less news and more opinions) it looks like the Queensland Government is proposing a solution: free wireless internet access on trains in South-East Queensland.

Here is a link to the online version of the article (The Courier Mail)

For the long and short of it, It seems that Queensland Rail (QR) are installing a comprehensive new wireless system to upgrade the security system for the CityTrain network. This system will be ‘piggybacked’ by commuters (that is a fancy word for us, the plebes), providing wireless internet access at stations and on the trains.

And it will be available in early 2010! I might be biased a little being a guy that runs a wireless hotspot website, but I think this is pretty cool.

A few things to think about though.

How ‘fast’ will the ‘high-speed’ internet access actually be during peak travel times? Most routes a starting to have a distinctive London Tube feel about them during rush-hour. In the event I can actually pull my elbow from my neighbours armpit and reach my laptop – will the network be overly congested?

Also, they mention the network will be ‘firewalled’ against non-commuters outside the stations and lines from accessing the internet. I’ve seen a few comments on the above news story sledging the Minister’s usage of the term. I think they just confused an IT term (not everyone is a network engineer after all). I would say they were talking about authentication and confusing terminology.

They will need some sort of authentication granted, and I believe the most likely solution is using the GO Card system. Every GO Card has a unique ID number. I envision an authentication page will query you for your GO Card ID and, if your GO Card shows you as currently travelling on a train (i.e. you’ve swiped on, but not off), you will be granted access accordingly.

At any rate, I’m interesting to see how this all rolls out.

It has been a busy month, so I’m afraid the updates on how the hotspot project has been going have been a little thin on the ground. Despite the lack of updates, there has been a flurry of activity on the maps themselves!

The has been an impressive number of hotspots being added to the Brisbane, Sydney and the Gold Coast maps. I would like to especially thank @josh909, @sonialastrega and @robertablinger for continued support contributing wifi hotspots and letting me know about it!

I’ve had a lot of interest in more information about MESH networks across Australia, both where coverage exists and how to contribute. There is some information on a community-driven wireless network at Free Australia Wireless. I am also talking to people about other MESH related projects. I’ll keep you all posted on anything that eventuates!

Follow WiFi-in-Australia on twitter: http://twitter.com/wifi_australia

Hi guys,

We have had a bunch of hotspots added to the Brisbane map, bringing our Brisbane hotspot total to over 20 locations, which is a brilliant start!

We have also had a couple of points added to the Gold Coast map, but it could definitely be improved.

Finally, still looking for some contributors to help out with getting a Sydney and Melbourne map started. Any takers?

Another wifi map has been added, this time for the Gold Coast. Anybody in the local area, please feel free to go to town on adding wifi hotspots. You can get to the Gold Coast map via ‘The Maps’ section to the right, or directly by visiting http://goldcoast.wifi-in-australia.com.