The bus company has teamed up with Wi-Fi traffic specialist RebelRoam to dramatically reduce the amount of data passengers use when they go online, so that fewer passengers will reach their session limits while they’re on the bus.
RebelRoam does this by:
- Locking down the resolution of social media, YouTube and other streaming sites to standard definition, so viewing is smoother and much less data is used.
- Advanced filtering, which stops background syncing when passengers connect to the bus company’s Wi-Fi. This makes Wi-Fi faster and shrinks data consumption.
Brighton & Hove and Metrobus’ Head of Customer Experience Luke Taylor-Sales said: “Our free Wi-Fi is already very popular with our customers. There are around 12,000 successful sessions every day on our buses, which shows how much customers value it. However, its popularity has put pressure on both bandwidth and speed, which can affect the service passengers get.
“We know how frustrating it can be when the Wi-Fi on the bus feels a bit clunky. We’ve listened to our customers and we’ve found a practical solution through RebelRoamto give people a hassle-free Wi-Fi experience on our buses.”
Brighton & Hove Bus & Coach Company is one company comprised of three brands: Metrobus, Brighton & Hove Buses and Spirit of Sussex coaches, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Go-Ahead Group. They operate 436 buses over 75 routes across Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Brighton & Hove and carried 67.5 million passenger journeys between June 2018 and June 2019, the highest number of passenger journeys in the UK per head of the population outside London.