News / Tubes get more mobile
Love it or hate it, you can't stop progress -- and if that means London's tube network finally getting mobile phone reception, then so be it.
After a proposed six-month trial was quietly brushed away in March by Transport for London, it looked like the capital's Underground railways would remain firmly ringtone free. Now Communications Minister Lord Carter has resurrected the idea of a pilot scheme to see whether installing coverage in stations deep beneath the city is commercially viable.
As part of the latest Digital Britain report by the Government, Carter bemoans the idea of there being a 'digital blackout' across nearly all of central London -- a roundabout way of saying that the trains run with about 200m of clay above them and the nearest mobile mast. The report goes on to say that the London Olympics provides the best opportunity to push for a deadline to create coverage.
...Lord Carter has resurrected the idea of a pilot scheme to see whether installing coverage in stations deep beneath the city is commercially viable.
The proposals also include the insistence that telecoms companies roll out more high-speed broadband connections across the country, including train franchise operators. So by 2012, you could catch a train into London watching streamed movies, and carry on watching the same movie without interruption as you trundle across town on the Underground.
Just whether you'll be able to hear your movie over the countless Crazy Frog and Sweety the Chick ringtones is still hazy...
You can read the entire Digital Britain report
here
