Stefan Mileschin

With free tube station wi-fi turned on for the Olympics, Londoners may soon be heading underground to get a decent connection.

Earlier this month a handful of London tube stations had wi-fi hotspots turned on, with Euston, Kings Cross, Oxford Circus, and other busy stations providing temporarily free internet through Virgin Broadband.

Research into the download speeds of certain stations shows that commuters and tourists crammed onto platforms will be enjoying faster speeds than they would with their home broadband.

The average download speed for the tube is 12.7Mb, fast enough to watch highlights of Woy’s Boys at Euro 2012 while avoiding pickpockets, or some live Olympics footage while waiting for one of the Capital’s ambling trains to turn up.

While tourists over for the Games might be impressed, these speeds compare rather favourable to that of the average UK household, limping like an asthmatic 100m sprinter into a last place finish with a meagre 7.6 Mb.

In comparison, Euston station had an average download of 14.59Mb, while Victoria had an average upload speed of 13.53Mb, Broadbandchoices.co.uk pointed out. Whether these speeds stay when legions of Olympics fans turn up is another matter.

Despite some dissent from the natives, it seems that the ability to use the internet at stations - though not on the Tube itself - will be popular.

Of course, while the tourist-pleasing wi-fi may be free throughout the month, those living here will have to shell out for the service once the Olympics come to an end.

http://news.techeye.net/internet/tub...roadband-speed