Avanti West Coast awarded Friendly WiFi certification

Avanti West Coast recognise the importance of keeping their passengers connected whilst travelling - whether it is a family who want to keep their kids entertained or a business commuter who needs to work during their journey. This has led Avanti West Coast to install a new WiFi network across their fleet and stations, working with technology leaders, McLaren Applied and Purple WiFi to give customers the best WiFi connectivity for their journey.

As they launched their new WiFi service, Avanti West Coast took the proactive decision to become Friendly WiFi certified for both the WiFi services provided across their train fleet and where they provide station WiFi.

By becoming Friendly WiFi certified, they are continuing to support their customer experience journey, plus as part of their activity to demonstrate their key values and commitment to protecting passengers online while making their journey on the west coast.

By being Friendly WiFi certified, Avanti West Coast are showing that they are providing a public WiFi network across their fleet and stations that will filter out inappropriate content, including indecent images and advertisements, this provides confidence to their passengers and parents that the services provided are safe for children to use.

Avanti West Coast worked with the Friendly WiFi team to complete the certification process of the government-initiated safe certification standard. Launched by Government in 2013, the Friendly WiFi symbol tells customers those services are meeting agreed filtering standards.

IT Service Manager for Avanti West Coast said:

“We understand how important connectivity is to customers travelling with us, so it's vital they feel safe online when using our WiFi network. Achieving friendly WiFi certification showcases our commitment to ensuring the WiFi we provide across our stations and onboard our trains is safe for everyone to use. The well-recognised Friendly WiFi logo is visible to all customers when they connect to our WiFi – giving them reassurance and confidence they can safely browse the internet when travelling across our west coast route”

Beverley Smith, Director for Friendly WiFi supports the certification of Avanti West Coast and said:

“I have been in touch with Avanti West Coast throughout their project to upgrade their WiFi services for passengers. From the start they were committed to ensuring that a safe WiFi experience was achieved, and this played a key part when building and installing their new service – ensuring a safe and filtered WiFi experience to keep families, children, and passengers safe online. I am now thrilled that we have completed the Friendly WiFi certification and to welcome them into the family of certified brands and venues”

This was further supported by Pablo Garcia Lopez, Director, Connected Intelligence at McLaren Applied who added, “McLaren Applied is proud to work alongside Avant West Coast to provide a Friendly WiFi-certified solution across their fleet. With our Formula 1-derived connectivity solutions giving passengers and operators faster and more stable WiFi than ever before, we recognise the importance of keeping everyone safe onboard. This certification demonstrates that we are on the right track toward providing seamless and secure internet access for our partners and their passengers across the UK rail network"