Armenian capital tests on-the-bus wi-fi high-speed connection

Armenian capital tests on-the-bus wi-fi high-speed connection

TBILISI, June 16 (Xinhua) -- School-bound and after-schoolstudents may soon have almost continuous and high-speed freeInternet connectivity available on such public transport as buses inthe Armenian capital city, as five of the Yerevan buses on Thursdaystarted a pilot program of providing mobile on-board Internetconnection.

If the test program executes well, student users of netbooks,tablets and smartphones will get a mobile wi-fi environment onbuses.

Bruno Duthoit, CEO of Orange Armenia which is providing themobile connectivity service, said the five buses had been equippedwith 3G wi-fi modems to provide wi-fi services.

The five buses run on routes local students use most often.

"This is an interesting and important project for us," said theCEO, "as it will allow us to test our MyFi service and itspossibility in different areas of the city, and from the other handit will make our services more accessible."

The MyFi modem is designed to provide up to 7.2 Mbyte per secondof connectivity speed.

Thursday's pilot tests showed that between 2 Mbyte per second and4 Mbyte per second of speed was achieved in different parts ofYerevan.

All Yerevan buses are expected to be equipped with wi-fi servicesif the pilot program succeeds with the testing buses.

The mobile wi-fi service on public transport was proposed by theYerevan municipality.