As I’m in London today I thought I might as well get something useful from the Olympic Games. Virgin Media has strung wires down to almost all London Underground stations and installed WiFi access points which are free to use for the duration of the games.
Logging on I was greeted with an eBay splash advert and Virgin Media have confirmed the first advertising partners for its new London Underground WiFi service are eBay and Renault. Users will see the ad just before accessing the free WiFi portal at the start of their journey for up-to-the-minute TfL travel information, daily recommendations from Time Out, exclusive playlists from Spotify and the latest trailers and red carpet gossip from MyMovies.Net.
Throughout the summer Virgin are giving away full internet access and after the Olympic Games WiFi portal with TfL travel information, updates and London news and entertainment will remain free for all Tube passengers. Passengers wanting to access the rest of the internet will be able choose from a range of options including full internet access for customers of Virgin and selected networks, as well as a Pay As You Go service customers of other networks.
To use the new free WiFi service, London Underground passengers simply need to connect to the service and register their email address.
eBay told us that by investing in this presence on Virgin London Underground WiFi, they hope they can help bring eBay mobile shopping to even more people and make getting online on the go even easier for their millions of mobile customers. If it gets more buyers filling in dead time at underground stations buying on eBay that sounds good to me.
