Train stations added, in-train coverage growing
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Free wifi has been extended to 10 Swiss train stations in the first three months of 2014, the CFF rail company said Monday, bringing to 23 the number of stations that offer the free subscription service, which will replace Swisscom hotspots that are available for a fee.
A total of 31 stations will be provided with free wifi during 2014, including main stations in the country’s five largest cities: Geneva, Lausanne, Basel, Bern, Zurich.
A word of caution if this sounds too good to be true and you’re considering living permanently at the train station to take advantage of the offer – the service is restricted to 60 minutes per station, with access restored after two hours.
In an additional move that travellers will appreciate, the CFF says it is putting out for tender to mobile phone operators the job of providing signal amplifiers so that wifi can be extended to cover regional trains. The system currently provides wifi coverage for more than 75 percent of the main train lines and by the end of this year all main line trains will have the signal amplifiers to provide full wifi coverage. At that point a CFF contract with Swisscom will end that currently provides wifi in 75 first class trains.
Hotspots in trains will disappear 1 May, says the CFF. To use the new “SBB-free wifi” service, passengers need to register once; for legal reasons the SBB/CFF collects their cell phone number and address. Some 35,000 passengers have registered since the rail company began to install free wifi service in September 2013.
The newest stations with free wifi are: Thun, Wädenswil, Uster, Dietikon, Zurich Hardbrücke, Effretikon, Liestal, Arth-Goldau, Yverdon-les-Bains, Visp.
CFF/SBB page with details and instructions for Android and Apple phones.