ACE Trains Going Wireless

PointShot Wireless has announced that they are going to be providing a free trial run of 802.11 WiFi on ACE Commuter Trains in California. This is a great idea, especially in the first month when it's free. Unfortunatly after the trial the company plans on charging $30/month for the service. Ultimatly I think people won't use the service for that price. They would much rather revert to their old habits and read, sleep, or listen to music while onboard the train. As I've blogged about recently, I don't think it's a viable business model to sell WiFi service. It has to be provided to your customers as an enticement to use your service. ACE would do well here if they subsidised the cost of WiFi and provided it for free to all of their passengers on every train. This would have the effect of encouraging people to use the train instead of driving their cars to work. The increased ridership on ACE would pay for the service. Here is a quote from the press release:

ACE and Capitol Corridor will offer the service on one car in one train during the free, three-month trial period. If it works and commuters embrace PointShot, the operators will expand it to more cars and charge a fee. No one knows yet how much it will cost, but you can expect to pay at least $10 a month. The restaurants charge nearly that much for a day's use.