Sharing best practice in the commercial sector
What mechanisms are there for sharing best practice in the commercial sector? Is it always left to market forces, is it always anti-competitive to share information that could be deemed “commercially sensitive?
I ask this question for this reason. There are some public transport operators which are offering wifi on buses and trains. This is a minority activity still in the UK, it seems to be more prevalent in some other countries. But, it is happening. East Coast trains has been providing free wifi for some time now (although personally, I find it nearly unusable for long periods of most journeys), and a “wfi bus” has recently been introduced between Sheffield and Matlock via Chesterfield. On the other hand, there is the on-going saga of Cross Country trains which has been fined for failing to meet its franchise commitment to introduce wifi on its services, and most of whose train carriages are effective Faraday cages which block out mobile signals.
We need more wifi on public transport so we can work on the move. But, as far as I can see, there is a lack of available information on how it has been deployed by those who have taken the plunge. If there was data in the public realm on the costs of installation and deployment, usage figures, and impact on passenger numbers, it would both give ammunition to those of us who want to campaign for these things, and provide a guide to others who want to follow suit.
Is all this imposssible?
