WiFi is coming to a MARTA bus near you

Fifty buses in the coming weeks will be outfitted with the service as part of a pilot program

MARTA riders soon won’t have to eat away at their phone’s data plans anymore.
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? Last week, the public transit agency unveiled plans to install WiFi on MARTA buses and eventually, trains.
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? The service will be free, says MARTA Chief Information Officer Ming Hsi. MARTA riders won’t pay a dime and fares will not increase to pay for the program. The ad-free 4G service will allow passengers access to light web surfing, social media, and emails. The WiFi will also be equipped with content filtering to keep riders — and other passengers sitting nearby — from viewing objectionable sites.
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? Fifty buses are set to roll out with the WiFi service in the next four to six weeks. If all goes well, the program will be expanded to the rest of the fleet. WiFi on trains will be available within the next year.
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? Some riders might find themselves twiddling their thumbs waiting for some pages to load. The average download speed will be 20-25 mbps and the average upload speed will be 15-20 mbps. (To put it in perspective, Comcast recently announced it was boosting its service from 50 mbps to 75 mbps to compete with Google Fiber’s move into Atlanta and other metro cities.) Bandwidth will also vary depending on the service provider and signal strength.
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? Alisa Jackson, MARTA’s manager of communications, says this initiative is important to keep attracting and maintaining riders by making public transit “cool.” She said MARTA recognizes riders live in a “digital, mobile society” and making its system more mobile friendly is one way to improve the customer experience.
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? Leftover cash from a 2012 program to install new security cameras will pay for the WiFi program.
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? MARTA has also announced a partnership with Uber to increase mobility and access throughout the city. The hope is for riders to use MARTA’s On the Go mobile app to contact Uber before leaving the station. The Uber driver will then ferry the rider to their final destination.
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