RebelRocket: 10x better Wi-Fi for the passenger transportation industry

Project Information

RebelRocket

Grant agreement ID: 806295

DOI

10.3030/806295

Project closed

EC signature date 13 March 2018

Start date 1 April 2018

End date 31 March 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 1 957 500,00

EU contribution

€ 1 370 250,00

Coordinated by

REBELROAM OU
Estonia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RebelRocket (RebelRocket: 10x better Wi-Fi for the passenger transportation industry)

Reporting period: 2019-04-01 to 2020-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

RebelRoam is disrupting passenger connectivity by making Wi-Fi faster for travellers and less expensive for transportation companies around the world.

Passengers expect fluid user experience with Wi-Fi that is always available, unlimited and unrestricted. RebelRoam's technology enables dynamic fairness in managing concurrent Wi-Fi users. At the reduces mobile broadband costs by up to 80%, which creates a relief for the passenger transport industry struggling with high cost of mobile data provision (especially roaming charges).

RebelRoam is developing an onboard Wi-Fi data traffic optimisation solution called RebelRocket Cloud that reduces data consumption and cost while significantly improving passenger Wi-Fi experience. This is done by filtering, shaping and accelerating data traffic. The most bandwidth heavy applications (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc.) are filtered and optimized and certain traffic like illegal content and automatic updates can be blocked. This results in faster Wi-Fi, allowing more concurrent users, yet at the same time reducing data consumption and cost. Passengers are happier because they can access more content while transport operators keep their cost under control. It is cloud-based, equipment and network agnostic and can be conveniently implemented remotely, within minutes, worldwide.

This solution helps to solve the main challenges the European transport industry faces today. Furthermore, it reduces mobile broadband costs by up to 80%, decreases legal compliance risks and creates competitive advantage for transportation provider by raising passengers’ satisfaction with the unlimited and fluid Wi-Fi user experience. Thus, in the long-term RebelRocket has positive effects on public transportation usage.

The main objective of this Phase 2 RebelRocket project is to achieve RebelRocket’s market readiness by further developing and piloting data traffic management algorithms and software and gaining market traction. As a result, RebelRocket will be ready for full commercialisation in Europe and USA (with initial focus on key target markets Germany, UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and the Baltics). Today, RebelRocket solution has been validated as an MVP (minimum viable product), but it needs further development to achieve market traction and to scale. Already in mid-2018, RebelRoam is servicing 2M unique passengers (end users) per month in 38 countries.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In general, implementation of RebelRocket project has been very successful in both technological and commercial perspective. RebelRocket solution has achieved readiness for full commercialisation by:
• having been demonstrated in operational environment and piloted by trial partners;
• having been developed the RebelRocket App trial version;
• having been ensured the highest IP protection for RebelRocket solution;
• having built up market traction, carried out communication activities and updated the value proposition.

RebelRocket has been actively participating in transportation industry conferences and trade fairs to maintain existing and establish new connections with industry players. Whenever feasible, RebelRoam has tried to get our representative to have a keynote speak, a panel discussion or pitch session on the stage which generates a lot of interest for the solution and provides prompt feedback. Over the project period, communication activities were carried out in all target verticals: buses & coaches (made it to 6 news outlets), trains (wrote an article in Railway Gazette), airline industry (RebelRocket was mentioned in 7 news articles) and cruise industry (2 articles). The main focus was to get exposure in leading industry-specific media outlets. From social media perspective, several RebelRoam announcements received noticeable exposure. Although RebelRoam’s clients are not reachable via those channels, building awareness among end-users and having RebelRoam branding more visibly out there has also strong benefits. As a result of communication and dissemination activities, RebelRoam has been able to pilot RebelRocket with over 40 different transportation companies from 4 different verticals – buses (both public city buses and intercity), trains, ships and also airplanes.

RebelRocket solution has reached high scalability: it is cloud-based, equipment and network agnostic and can be conveniently implemented remotely, within minutes, worldwide. There’s a strong demand on the market for data traffic optimization service with airlines emerging as a new target vertical with potential to become the biggest customer segment for RebelRocket. The last accomplishment of RebelRoam was in 2018 when the company was voted the winner of the FTE and JetBlue Technology Ventures Startup Competition, from competition of almost 50 global entries.

The SME instrument phase 2 funding has enabled RebelRoam to develop and commercialize RebelRocket solution in shorter timeframe and with less delays. Without the funding the development of RebelRocket would be several steps behind its current level in both technological and commercial perspective.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

RebelRocket technology contributes to the twin societal pressures of urbanisation and digitalisation by improving the speed and quality of Wi-Fi in mass transportation. The rapid pace of global urbanisation threatens the environment and citizen well-being. Excessive private vehicle usage and overstrained public transportation networks result in traffic congestions and (gasoline/diesel engine) pollution.

However, research shows that Wi-Fi can be part of the solution: Wi-Fi availability on public transport leads to an increase in passenger numbers. RebelRocket helps to accelerate the growth of Smart Cities in Europe while reducing the pressure on public issues of urbanization and digitalization via ICT-based solution by improving the speed and quality of Wi-Fi in mass transportation. By enhancing user experience of on-board Wi-Fi, RebelRocket increases the appeal of public transportation. At the same time, RebelRocket eases the pressures of ICT-based economy by bringing widely accessible, fast and reliable mobile connectivity to public spaces and by enabling people to be productive while on the move. Thus, in incentivising public transport use, RebelRocket positively impacts on the environment, citizens’ quality of life as well as economic competitiveness.

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