AirAppz’s CEO, Evert Bopp, has made an offer to Irish Rail to install and manage a public wifi service on all their routes. Mr. Bopp has done this after increased discussions on this topic in the Irish media. Following is a quote from his blogpost on the subject:

There has been an ongoing discussion within the Irish blogger community recently on the subject of public wifi internet access on trains.

There is a growing demand for this type of service and the provision of it will certainly get more bums on train seats and off car seats. This in turn would lead to lower car usage resulting in lower carbon emisions, surely something that the government should support? I for one would be inclined to take the train rather than drive if it meant that I could sit and work while traveling.

Irish Rail doesn’t think that this is a viable option and states the following in it’s FAQ:

“Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) feels that it wouldn’t be in the public or the company’s best interest to install the current wireless technologies on
its fleet for customer use due to the limited lifespan of said technologies. Anything we install now is likely to be completely redundant within five years.

We feel customers would be better supported by obtaining their own wireless solutions, such as those provided by the mobile providers (3G and GPRS/EDGE ).

The full blogpost can be found here.