Comcast Quietly Testing Rail Station Wi-Fi

Comcast has quietly lit up Wi-Fi service at 100 New Jersey railroad stations, perhaps with an eye towards offering subscribers Wi-Fi roaming services.

Cable giant Comcast has very quietly launched a pilot program at 100 New Jersey Transit railway stations offering Wi-Fi service to rail commuters. The company hasn’t informed local users about the service, and has described the Wi-Fi offering as a “beta” pilot program that’s more of an experiment than a service offering. Still, if the program succeeds Comcast broadband subscribers might find the company offers them roving Wi-Fi access at key public locations as part of their existing service plan&mash;and that might be a great way to attract and retain customers.

Cable operator Cablevision has already committed to a $300 million Wi-Fi service in parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York over the next two years; however, since cable franchises are local monopolies, Comcast and Cablevision don’t directly compete with each other in most locations. Cable companies may also have an advantage when it comes to rolling out Wi-Fi services because they already have rights-of-way for installing communications gear for their existing cable services—and those locations could be ripe for Wi-Fi nodes.

Comcast has previously rolled out Wi-Fi trials in Florida and Texas.

Bundling access to Wi-Fi services with existing broadband (and voice and cable television) packages may help cable operators compete with IPTV services and mobile services from the likes of AT&T and Verizon, which are preparing to launch so-called 4G wireless broadband services over the next few years. In fact, Clearwire already has WiMax up and running Baltimore and Portland, and still hopes to roll out nationwide access before competitors LTE technology is online.