In today's column, we will discuss the quality of the Internet in the Moscow metro and the attitude to advertising while using it.
In my feed Facebook battles have been going on for some time over the quality of Wi-Fi in the Moscow metro and ad formats for it. The essence of the claims of the majority of those complaining boils down to the fact that Wi-Fi, that is, it is not, and advertising is always there, while often not just a banner falls out, but a long video sequence for 10-15 seconds. People respond to the offer to pay for a paid subscription for 99 rubles, they say, they are not ready to give money for such an Internet, plus some are indignant because the subscription applies only to one device, and is not tied to a phone number.
My opinion
Personally, I think that the very appearance of Wi-Fi in the metro on all branches and at each station is already a huge progress for Moscow, given that a couple of years ago we could not even think about the presence of the Internet even on part of the line. The quality of mobile Internet in the subway was, to put it mildly, mediocre, of the big three, only MegaFon had more or less good Internet, and MTS and Beeline provided only frail EDGE at stations.
Now I can easily use even a tablet without a 3G module to entertain myself while traveling. At the same time, practically nothing is required from me, it is enough to confirm your phone number and watch an advertising banner or video.
Maxima Telekom provides its Wi-Fi for me for free, in response, she asks me to just watch their ads. In my opinion, this is a great deal, and not only for me, but for most of the passengers on the metro.
Recently, they also have an option with a paid subscription, as a result, advertising can be turned off for only 99 rubles. So what if it is on one device, so for an ordinary user, as a rule, the main gadget for the metro is either a smartphone or a tablet, so this limitation will hardly affect him. Of course, for this money I would like to avoid an authorization window in principle and use a 'seamless' connection, but I think that Maxima Telecom has reasons for authorization requests every time you connect.
On my orange branch, or rather, in its lower part, non-working Wi-Fi is very rare (according to my observations), perhaps once every ten trips. In this case, I switch to the mobile Internet and download the content I need to the stations, and then calmly read. Some users note either the complete absence of the Internet, or its very poor performance, which makes it impossible to even go through authorization, and express their claims in such a tone as if someone owes them something. Moreover, these same people refuse to pay for a subscription, therefore, in theory, they have no reason to be indignant.
Conclusion
Perhaps now the Internet from Maxim Telecom does not work with 100% stability, but, in my opinion, it is still much better than the situation two years ago. And the fee they demand (100 rubles per device or watching video ads) for such an achievement is quite fair. Unfortunately, in our country people are often used to making a huge number of demands without any obligations on their part, and the situation with the metro is an excellent example of this.
Dear readers, in conclusion, I would like to ask you how you assess the quality of Wi-Fi in the metro? How annoying are you with video ads, and do you consider watching them worthy of paying for free internet? If not, what alternatives do you see?