Uber, the company that makes hailing a car and paying for it as easy as dropping a pin on a smartphone, has recently launched a new feature that brings another level of luxury and service to the experience, Wifi in cars.
Through a partnership with Italian startup WiMan, Uber in Italy now offers free Wifi service in every car through a 3G/WiFi hotspot in every vehicle.
According to Uber Italy General Manager and co-manager for Europe Benedetta Arese Lucini, Uber Italy shows more demand for Wifi service in every car because most data plans offer less GB/month than we usually get in the states, and finding free Wifi at every corner isn’t as ubiquitous as it is in San Francisco.
Here’s how it works:
Users click into the WiMan-labeled Wifi network on their iPhones or Android devices, and are taken instantly to a landing page for sign-in. Users can sign-in with one touch to their Google or Facebook accounts.
Uber and WiMan can work together to customize the landing page, perhaps for special Uber-promoted events or campaigns.
WiMan is an Italian startup from the deep south of Italy, Puglia, where there is no Wifi. As with any truly successful startup, WiMan was solving a problem that it faced on its own, and now has over 600 bars/restaurant partners and is installed in 20 Uber cars in the past six months.
The team has raised a total of €100k from Nana Bianca as angels.
Uber will be testing Wifi in Rome for the next three months, at which point Arese Lucini will get together with other Uber leaders and decide if this should roll out further.
WiMan is currently testing 4G/LTE options to bring to Uber consumers, as well as WiMan’s 100,000 unique users. But for now, Romans can enjoy 3G Wifi for free within Ubers courtesy of WiMan.