Free Wi-Fi Benefits Three Million Public Transport Users

The government has been busy boasting about its SuperConnected cities project, and how many people it’s benefiting with free Wi-Fi.

The scheme has seen the introduction of free Wi-Fi on buses, trams and trains in various UK cities, and apparently over 3 million unique users have made regular use of the wireless connections while travelling.

In fact, nine cities across the UK have benefited from the SuperConnected initiative, namely: Leeds, Bradford, Oxford, Manchester, Salford, York, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Newport.

The vast majority of those 3 million plus users are in Edinburgh, where free Wi-Fi on 20 buses and 104 trams has benefited 2.6 million members of the public.

The other cities which have seen big numbers of users include 24 trains and around the same number of buses in Leeds and Bradford, which have witnessed some 600,000 users, and in Greater Manchester 265,000 travellers on 116 buses and trams have made use of the scheme.

The other cities are offering free Wi-Fi just on bus services, with Oxford getting over 100,000 unique users on its buses, Cardiff seeing 90,000, Newport getting 25,000, and finally York is on 20,000 users.

Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey commented: “The rollout of free Wi-Fi on public transport has been a tremendous success and I’m delighted that so many people are making use of it. Installing free Wi-Fi on public transport is one of the ways we’re boosting connectivity across our cities and making sure the UK is properly equipped to meet the increasing demands of the digital age.”