It might be likely that many passengers are unaware of this already, but NX Bus are no longer offering free Wi-Fi on its buses.
According to NX Bus, despite having 600,000 passengers using their services every day, only 1% of them make any use of the onboard free Wi-Fi service.
Well of course, not all of their vehicles have the required equipment installed, so it’s not clear whether the quoted passengers figure relates to those using the Platinum-spec vehicles, or as a whole, which could distort things.
But either way, there aren’t enough people using it to justify the cost.
But it’s free?
If you don’t know this already, you might find it hard to believe that nothing is ever truly ‘free’!
Yes, the Wi-Fi service might be free for bus passengers to use, however it still costs the bus operators money to provide. If hardly anyone uses it, then it is not worth the cost of providing it as an ‘added-value extra’.
Why don’t people use it?
Any form of ‘free’ service usually comes with limitations and restrictions. As I wrote about this previously, most people with mobile phones have contracts that include some very generous data allowances now, and many people have 4G or 5G devices with fast mobile internet capability.
I regularly travel on buses that never had any wi-fi capability, yet I observe many passengers using their phones to watch videos.
So clearly to me, a ‘free’ wi-fi service that is limited and restricted, is not that much use to many people anyway, hence why people don’t bother with it.
‘Gimmick’ or ‘value-added extra’?
At the time, some marketing bod clearly thought that the idea of offering a free wi-fi service on buses was a ‘great way’ to attract people out of their cars and onto buses instead.
I can understand why free wi-fi services may be useful on trains and coaches used for longer-distance journeys, but I never felt it would be useful for passengers making shorter local journeys by bus.
Somebody thought it was a ‘great idea’, but I still think it was just a ‘gimmick’.
Hopefully now, bus operators are learning that passengers are not really interested in such ‘gimmicks’ – they are more concerned with the bus actually turning up on time and being able to get a seat.
That’s my opinion, but what do you think? Did you use the free wi-fi and if so will you miss it? Let us know in the comments below!
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As pointed out the 1% of 600,000 figure is utterly misleading. Only around 8% of services have ever had free wifi so the actual numbers are more likely around 1 in 40 passengers do use it where it is available. The removal is disappointing particulalry when bus stops in Dudley are all over the place and people need access to information. Again as pointed out the vast majority of people have wifi access through their own provider but not everyone and even those that do will encounter ‘black spots’ whichever provider they use. Penny pinching when posting huge profits again.
While I never made much use of it on the buses, the issue with ‘black spots’ is a regular one for me on my commute, as I can never get any signal whilst on the train along most of the route from Tipton into Birmingham. Luckily, I have a lot of music downloaded, and WMR’s free WiFi is usually quick enough for catching up on work emails and the like. It’s definitely something that I’d be sad to see go away.