How Gruppo FS Italiane redefines Italian rail traveler WiFi

The Italian State Railways Group, Gruppo FS Italiane, is one of the largest industrial companies in Italy, responsible for the movement of 8,000 trains daily, with approximately 600 million passengers and 50 million tons of cargo each year. It provides national railway services and has long been a driving force behind technology innovation in the European rail industry — dedicated to promoting mobility, efficient transportation, and greater consumer access to trains in Italy and abroad.

These are exciting times for travelers and commuters. The transport industry is being transformed by digital technology, with providers incorporating a wide range of digital innovations into their infrastructure to stay competitive and meet growing demand for digitally enabled travel services.

Visitors to transportation hubs such as railway stations increasingly rely on connected mobile devices throughout their journey — checking timetables, looking up journey details, finding station amenities, and getting directions. Guest WiFi is no longer an “optional extra” for transport providers; it’s an element travelers expect as standard the moment they arrive at a station.

Train stations now serve multiple modes of transport and are becoming new centers within cities, with services aimed at all visitors. For Gruppo FS Italiane, meeting that new status quo meant fast-tracking its rail development plans — going beyond basic guest WiFi to a more comprehensive suite of services for local communities.

The company created Wi-Life Station to offer visitors a better digital experience in the station while collecting valuable, privacy-respecting information about visitors and their behavior for the benefit of the stakeholders located within the station — redesigning the concept of the station around the idea of a smart station in a smart city.

Maurizio Levi, CIO Information & Communication Technology of Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, and his team led the search for a solution that could make this “smart station” a reality. The Wi-Life Station project was delivered in collaboration with Almaviva, an ICT leader in Italy’s Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) sector and IT-services outsourcer for Gruppo FS Italiane. For the hardware, Almaviva chose Cisco Meraki, an industry leader in cloud-managed networking.

“What made Wi-Life Station such a success was how well the three main entities, despite their different sizes, came together to achieve the vision — a large company (Gruppo FS), a system integrator (Almaviva), and Cloud4Wi. Stations are often a city’s first impression. Wi-Life Station is a prime example of how IoT and digital innovation can offer new, welcoming, and easy-to-use services to improve the lives of citizens, tourists, and everyone who frequents the train stations and businesses of our cities.”
— Smeraldo Fiorentini, General Manager, Transportation Division, Almaviva

After an extensive search for a guest WiFi solution, Mr. Levi chose Cloud4Wi — for its open, cloud-based architecture that easily integrates third-party systems, enabling station stakeholders to interact with visitors. Cloud4Wi integrated so seamlessly with Cisco Meraki that Mr. Levi saw the joint solution as the winning combination for Wi-Life Station.

The solution gives station visitors a smart WiFi connection through a Virtual Station Portal — customized per station and available in nine languages — where they log in via email, phone number, or social account. Beyond internet access, visitors enjoy location-based services including a navigator, timetable, travel assistant, and points-of-interest map.

Wi-Life Station also collects anonymous, aggregated insights into visitors and their behavior in each station, and lets stakeholders interact directly with visitors — delivering context-aware services like local event promotions through the portal, or enriching existing mobile apps and feeding the data back into their own IT, monitoring, and business-intelligence systems.

“The Wi-Life Station project’s success stems from the vision of Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, which was focused on creating an innovative solution while making sure to involve the stations in the digital transformation process. Wi-Life Station is the result of a great team effort with Cloud4Wi, Almaviva, and Cisco Meraki. I am proud to see the dream of a smart station in a smart city become reality in 116 stations, where digital travelers find services aligned with their expectations.”
— Maurizio Levi, CIO Information & Communication Technology, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana

Beginning in January 2015, the project was executed quickly despite complex requirements — accelerated by special events (EXPO 2015 and the Roman Catholic Church’s Giubileo) that required the WiFi services Wi-Life Station provided. Launched in May 2015, Wi-Life Station was implemented in 116 stations and used by more than 1.3 million registered users, amassing more than 2.3 million connections.

Wi-Life Station was named a Digital360 Award winner in the retail category in July 2016 — recognizing Italian enterprises and suppliers behind digital projects that achieved genuine business transformation. It has redefined the station-visitor experience and now provides stakeholders with vital insights for development, management, and value creation in tourism and other activities in and around the station. Gruppo FS Italiane continued rolling the solution out across the national Italian rail network.

Future implementations could involve local police (safety alerts and crime reports), local governments (news, local events, citizen services), and cultural organizations (promoting events for arriving tourists) — all through the Virtual Station Portal.