Tag Archives: Wifi on the Frecciargento

Wireless Connections on the Frecciargento

Wireless Connections on the Frecciargento

It’s not that it’s frustrating; connecting to wireless in most countries can be time consuming, complicated, expensive and unpredictable.  But on the high-speed trains in Italy they have developed a system at the very highest level of incompetency. Essentially, Italian law mandates that they must charge you for Wi-Fi which means you must give them a credit card so that they can charge you an obligatory amount that will last for 24 hours. The completion of the form is complicated, and on a cell phone practically impossible to figure out.  The charge for this wireless connection is 1ct of €1 Euro, an obligatory charge, mandated by Italian law, so that at least 3000 people sitting in an office somewhere can attend to the paperwork required to administrate its operation.

Once you have completed the application, a username and a password are generated. Both the username and password are so long, with uppercase, lowercase, etc…that there’s a fairly good chance you’ll get it wrong at least twenty times. But not to worry, at some point you’ll get it – but then the ugly truth kicks in. Fast trains move fast because they use tunnels to cut through the central spine of Italy’s Apennines Mountains. Wireless connections, of course, do not work in tunnels.  When the connection drops you have to re-enter the password that you’ve probably forgotten, unless you were smart enough to write it down. Don’t feel bad, it will not remember you either – that would be too easy!  In addition there are five station stops between Rome and Venice; wireless does not work at station stops either and the same rules apply to stations as to tunnels. The bottom line is that if you were planning to do a lot of work on the train, you better have data roaming as your backup. But the trains do run on time!