Free wifi due to arrive at selected SNCF stations

French rail passengers at certain mainline stations will soon be enjoying free wireless internet access, according to Le Monde Informatique, which reports that SNCF, the French national railway company, is going to install free and unlimited wifi access in Parisian stations in coming months. Lille-Flandres and Avignon TGV are the two pilot stations which will be equipped with wifi at the end of March 2014. Some forty stations will offer wifi by the end of June 2014. All told, the 128 largest French railway stations out of a total of 3,000 will be connected by the end of February 2015. Passengers will have free and unlimited wifi access after having viewed an advertisement. The connection portal will be identical in all stations and users will need to create a user account to access the service or download the wifi application developed by Métropolis. The signal will cover the areas which the public can access, waiting rooms, the platforms and the cross-Channel areas of Paris-Nord and Lille-Europe stations.

Nomosphere is the French company entrusted with the technical deployment of the wifi infrastructure and its day-to-day management. Management of the wifi portal and its advertising services will be provided by WiFi Metropolis.