On-board entertainment and captive portal

Business challenge

Millions of people around the world cannot imagine everyday commute without public transportation. In fact, buses and coaches account for 8% of all passenger on-land transport in the EU according to Eurostat. Moreover, currently, there are almost 900 000 busses in circulation, as was estimated by the European Automobile Manufacturer Association. With global policies directed towards more sustainable use of resources public transport is an area of a significant focus. Passengers, especially in urban areas, are encouraged to switch from using their vehicles that usually provide transportation for a single person to using provided public transport infrastructure. To make public bus transportation more attractive to passengers, most bus operators are offering free Wi-Fi hotspots for browsing, and there is increasing popularity in on-board content sharing services. From an integration and operation perspective – there is a challenge to select reliable and easy to integrate connectivity products and manage them easily from a remote location using robust and intuitive software.

Partner

mugiCloud is a technology-driven company based in Gipuzkoa, Spain. It specializes in the development of solutions that provide value-added services to the passenger transportation industry through expertise in Wireless, Internet, and cloud-based platforms. This success story will focus on two primary solutions offered by mugicloud:

• mugiCloud location and captive portal management platform is an innovative solution for vehicles that significantly helps reduce expenses, optimize fleet management, and offers an additional revenue stream. All of this is made possible by improving customer satisfaction and managing Wi-Fi, GPS, and cellular connectivity by convenient SaaS Cloud platform.
• mugiMedia is an onboard entertainment solution designed to improve traveler’s experience offering bus passengers a convenient onboard entertainment system with streaming files and music from an onboard media device. It conserves cellular data plans because all content is hosted onboard and shared through Wi-Fi. It also enables enhanced engagement with the passengers through trip location and status information.

Topology

Solution

Because passenger transport cannot stay stationary, 4G LTE is the single best option for reliable and cost-efficient connectivity. With widespread global cellular coverage, it offers high data speeds and availability with low latency. The solution presented in the topology consists of Teltonika RUT955 Industrial Cellular router, capable of broadband LTE speeds of up to 150 Mbps with additional functionality, such as robust Wi-Fi, accurate GPS, and advanced firmware features. Together with custom version of RutOS, explicitly developed for mugiCloud by Teltonika Networks, the RUT955 can be seamlessly integrated with mugiCloud software and mugiMedia content device along with its management platform. As a result, this solution offers passenger hotspot with added marketing value of the captive portal, location tracking, content sharing over Wi-Fi, and the possibility to connect additional devices, such as CCTV cameras or ticketing terminals.

Benefits

• mugiCloud cloud-based management platform offers easy captive portal management and convenient location tracking
• mugiMedia solution is a highly cost-efficient way to offer passenger entertainment through BYOD (bring your own device) or bus screens because it uses onboard storage for content.
• Teltonika RUT955 is perfect for supporting mugiCloud platform as it combines reliable and secure 4G LTE, GPS, and Wi-Fi able to support up to 100 concurrent wireless clients.
• Advanced RutOS functionality of Teltonika RUT955 allows scalable and straightforward integration with no specialized training needed.

Why Teltonika?

mugiCloud chose the RUT955 by Teltonika Networks because their priority is always to offer technology solutions to their clients that are secure, reliable, and easy to use. Also, Teltonika has made a special firmware for the RUT955, changing its RutOS specifications to integrate with mugiCloud software solutions perfectly. Together, mugiCloud and Teltonika can address most of passenger transport technology challenges when it comes to location, captive portal, and on-board content management.