Part of the Northern and Central lines on the London Underground now have mobile phone coverage for Virgin Media O2 customers.
(c) TfL
The Central line between Holland Park and Queensway, and the Northern line between Archway and Kentish Town are now live for phone coverage in the stations and tunnels for Virgin Media O2 customers.
The service supports both mobile data and voice, although realistically as anyone who travels on the tube knows, it’s far too noisy for voice calls and most people spend their time staring at their phones using the mobile data to get onto websites and apps.
This follows from those sections of the tube network being switched on for EE and Vodafone customers last December. This leaves just Three UK to join, and that’s expected to happen imminently.
There are also 4G services for all four networks on the Jubilee Line between Canning Town and Westminster stations after services went live in 2020 as part of earlier work carried out with TfL and other mobile operators.
The implications for the virtual operators (MVNOs) that piggyback on the four big networks will be for them to decide separately.
The rollout is part of a wider project with Transport for London (TfL) and BAI Communications to bring full mobile connectivity to London Underground stations and tunnels. The aim is to deliver full coverage on the tube and Elizabeth line by the end of 2024.
Final testing is also underway at some of central London’s busiest tube stations, including Camden Town, Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road, to enable them to start offering mobile coverage shortly.
Telecoms engineers installing equipment (c) TfL
BAI’s network will also host the Home Office’s Emergency Services Network (ESN), which will replace the existing Airwave system currently used by London’s emergency response teams.
Great news! Have you heard anything about when the Elizabeth line wifi will be switched on in the central tunnels?
Is there a map anywhere of which parts of the London Underground has signal.
Appreciate its only these sections plus Jubilee at present but might be an interesting one to keep track of as it expands over the coming years.
now the article says 3 data hasn’t been turned on, but given my carrier uses 3s network and I’ve been getting data down there for the last few months…
Does this mean I can now follow some speech on parts of the tube by simply lipreading? Does the tube have a privacy clause?
I do NOT want to have to listen to other passengers’ conversations while travelling on the tube as I have to when on surface railways.
I expect that TfL benefit from providing cell’phone connection in this way but it seems quite pointless to me.
Surely people can wait an hour or less before using a telephone?
Even though the tube is too noisy for most phone calls and 99.999% of people use mobile connectivity for checking their social media accounts?
There’s been times in the past I’d have found internet access in the tube very useful for checking connecting trains. It would have allowed me to see before getting to surface level whether my connecting train was on time or running late, and what platform to head to. Rather useful if you’re cutting it a bit fine and want to save a bit of time by not staring at your phone or an information board once at surface level.
Can’t Social Media wait an hour either?
It could, so could reading the newspaper, applying makeup or having a nap. But we don’t seem to object to those as much as people using a mobile phone. I wonder if there’s latent luddism at work.
Is this coverage 4G only, or does it include 2G and 3G? (I use a ‘brick’ Nokia telephone that is 2G only, and the Jubilee line tunnel signal does not work for me, even though I use O2.)