I have never heard of a test of mobile internet on city buses till now - San Francisco is going to do it according to a story just published today in Engadget.

Public transport in the San Francisco Bay Area is to join the 21st Century now that AC Transit, one of the transit authorities in the region, is about to start testing WiFi on a fleet of 79 buses. The service will be free for riders (and freeloading WiFi addicts in following cars), and is due for a full rollout in mid-fall. The bus routes taking part in the test phase travel along three of the longest bridges in the area (the Dumbarton, San Meteo and Bay), which is intentional: having WiFi on longer routes makes it easier for passengers to justify getting out and booting up their laptop. The idea behind the scheme is to offer a competitive advantage for buses over other forms of transportation, but there are still a few questions about the concept of WiFi-enabled buses that this test may be able to answer. Number one on our list is “will passengers be willing to use their laptops on buses?” There’s a glaringly obvious security concern here: you’re asking to be mugged if you’re happy with pulling out your prized laptop on a city bus. The other pertinent issue is priorities. For most commuters, having a reliable and comfortable service will always be more important than internet access. Finally, it appears that the program will be completely separate from the GooLink partnership that will eventually bring WiFi to the entire city. Joining up with the aforementioned scheme is certainly an avenue that the transit authority should look down, preferably before the state of California plunks down $340,000 of funding on the Bus-Fi scheme.

I’m not worried about having a laptop or wireless mobile phone ripped off on a AC Transit bus (been a long time since I lived in Berkley, but I do recall AC Transit and used to ride it all the time, along with BART) - I’m thinking that power is going to be more of an issue. Most laptop batteries still don’t last that long and bus seats are not really setup to for laptop use - you can do it - but do you want to bother - that’s why I’d only bother if i hybernated the laptop before getting on the bus.

Still, the idea is intriquing - were Grayhound or Trailways get into mobile communications - and provided wireless internet on routes more than, say, an hour - it would definately be a reason to take that bus line (if there was a choice of transportation).

I noticed that Amtrack still does not have wireless internet on trains from NYC to Boston or Washington on my last trip to Boston to cover Webmasterworld Pubcon in April - yet they supply the power and comfort to operate your laptop, but not to connect to the internet.

Links: Engadet, Wi-Fi Net News,