Trains derail the working commute

The rise of laptops and mobiles may have put paid to the days when you could sit back and have a sleep on the train but poor network connections are making many tasks virtually impossible.
A survey by networking experts GWS found that fewer than a third (30.3%) of mobile Internet connections attempted by London’s commuters was successful, highlighting the poor state of mobile networks around the city.
The study found that Vodafone customers appear to have the best 3G data service while commuting, with the operator’s network the most reliable in terms of successfully sending data packets and offering the fastest download speeds (2Mbps on average during testing).
EE offered the best 4G data service; its 4G network tied with Vodafone in the reliability stakes but was the fastest when it came to downloads (5.6Mbps on average during testing).
The company carried out tests while travelling back and forth on the ten most popular commuting routes into and out of London, and also found that many phone calls were going uncompleted, with just one in seven being successful.
Commuters using Three’s mobile network enjoyed the best voice connection, with the operator taking joint top spot when it came to the number of calls completed, but edging ahead in terms of the quality of the calls.
O2 performed the worst, with the survey finding that the operator had to fall back on using its 2G networks to handle calls more than 60% of the time, and that so-called “half-rate codecs”, which reduce audio quality, were used for nearly a third of all calls.
Overall, St Pancras station fared the worst in terms of connectivity, with GWS’ engineers experiencing an average of 99 voice and packet data failures across the four major operators during testing.
GWS chief executive Paul Carter said: “Leaves on the track, the wrong kind of snow, having to stand up all the way to work and back – commuters have enough to contend with without the kind of mobile connectivity problems we’re revealing today.
“Pressure from commuters makes it inevitable that trains won’t keep their status as mobile dead zones for much longer. It’d be great to see networks, rail operators and station-masters taking the lead on improving connectivity for commuters – rather than having to be dragged into the 21st Century kicking and screaming.”