Amtrak and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. have inked a deal to put wireless Internet access in six of the railroad’s stations along the Northeast Corridor.
“Amtrak is excited to be able to offer our customers another way to meld their busy schedules and the work they need to get done,” Sally Bellet, Amtrak vice president of real estate development, said in a statement. “Our arrangement with a proven wireless carrier such as AT&T Wireless is just the thing to help keep Amtrak travelers and station visitors connected to their e-mail and the Internet.”
Anyone with a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop or PDA will be able to access the system, according to Amtrak. Customers of AT&T Wireless will just have to enter their user credentials to go online. Other users can connect to the Wi-Fi service with an online credit card payment of US$9.99. They will then get unlimited access from a single location for 24 hours.
Amtrak is set to launch the new service early this summer. The railroad said AT&T Wireless will be responsible for the design, installation, management, operation and maintenance for the Wi-Fi systems in each of the six stations.
The stations are Boston’s Route 128 station; Providence; New York’s Penn Station; Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station; Wilmington, Del.; and Baltimore’s Penn Station.