Mind the gap(ing mouth): London's Underground to get ubiquitous mobile phone coverage

Mobile phone coverage is to be extended across the whole of the London Underground – including every station and every tunnel - by 2024, it was confirmed today. It means hard-pressed commuters – who are slowly returning to the soul-sapping slog of travelling to work each day - are to lose one of the few places they can go …

[David Austin]

Thanks I hate it

In principle, a useful and practical addition.

In reality, the first person to share a 20 minute phone conversation with their spouse about what they're having for dinner when they get home with 130 trapped, hot, and stressed commuters on the edge of snapping may not have to Mind The Gap ever again...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Thanks I hate it

Don't worry - getting any sort of radio to work in those tunnels is an engineering nightmare. There's a reason the current WiFi service is only at the stations.

[Commswonk]

Re: Thanks I hate it

...getting any sort of radio to work in those tunnels is an engineering nightmare.

IMO that is an overstatement; leaky feeders have been used to provide underground / tunnel radio communications for years; the engineering isn't really a nightmare, but the associated costs most assuredly are, not least because the area (volume?) that an individual cell can cover is quite modest in comparison with that covered by a cell with a tower - mounted aerial.

[ARGO]

Re: Thanks I hate it

Leaky feeders are indeed well known, and fine for the more recent bits of the system. I'm told that's how the Jubilee Line cellular coverage works. But the older tunnels don't have space on the walls to fit those without moving other things. There's space at the bottom, but running comms next to high power electrics would be brave - and you've then got the train floor between the antenna and the users.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Thanks I hate it

Put a cell in each carriage, and feed it from antennas mounted outside, front & rear, which communicate with the leaky feeder?

[Martin Summers]

Re: Thanks I hate it

"Don't worry - getting any sort of radio to work in those tunnels is an engineering nightmare"

Channel Tunnel managed it. Leaky feeder cable, as previously mentioned.

[Jay 2]

Re: Thanks I hate it

If it's actually on a train then you may be spared the sort of person who holds the phone horizontally with the speaker on like some vapid Apprentice wannabe.

Can't say I'm looking forward to any of this development. There's a reason I've usually got some earphones on when travelling by public transport.

[ShadowSystems]

Re: Thanks I hate it

I was going to say to just wear headphones & ignore everyone around you as if you can't hear them. Most will assume you can't hear them & ignore you right back. If you also set your phone to vibrate or just pure airplane mode, you don't have to hear your phone trying to demand your attention either. Bonus points for being naked & practicing the bagpipes to keep a cleared "no touch" zone around you as if you had the plague. =-D

[Intractable Potsherd]

Re: Thanks I hate it

But what about the twerking?

[ShadowSystems]

Re: Thanks I hate it

*Smacks self in the forehead* DOH! I forgot the twerking! How could I forget the twerking? I'll just have to do extra twerking to make up for the lack of it up until now. Thanks for the reminder!

*Slides a pint to you before wandering away doing extra enthusiasticly obscene naked twerking & playing the bagpipes as badly as possible*

[Len]

Re: Thanks I hate it

First of all, people barely make voice calls anymore. It's almost all text based nowadays, whether it's WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Matrix, Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Diaspora, Instagram or Snapchat, who uses their phone to talk?

Secondly, THE RIDICULOUSLY LOUD BACKGROUND NOISE, will make almost everyone who would still make a call opt for text anyway.

[Cederic]

Re: Thanks I hate it

Text? It's all blinking video calls these days.

Of course, the obvious response is to just join in the conversation.

"Hello! We're on a train! It's awesome, everybody can hear you. Say hi to everybody in the carriage."

[Anonymous Coward]

1986

Hey, it's only 35 years since mobile/cellular phones were launched in the UK. Well done with keeping up with the times, London Underground.

"leveraging the power of 5G to deliver city-wide improvements " It will take a lot more than the power of 5G to improve London city-wide. IMHO.

[Len]

Re: 1986

Mobile phone coverage in metro systems is typically a solved problem. In many cities across the world this has been possible for nearly two decades.

The standard approach is to use a 'leaky feeder'. This is essentially a coax cable along the tunnel wall with little holes punched in the outer mantle so it acts as a very long aerial. This is also how Tube drivers already communicate with the control centre. The Tube uses a packet switched radio system called 'Connect' that isn't even that far from standard mobile telecoms.

The London situation, at least for the deep level lines, has always been a bit of a barrier as there is sometimes not even ten centimetres between the train and the tunnel lining to install the infrastructure.

It looks as if they finally found a solution that is not only technically possible but also economically viable. Although it might only make economic sense because the infrastructure cost are offset by being able to lay a cross London fibre network without major digging and renting out capacity.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, but there's. wonderful omission..

As London Underground is loath to share power with idiots who would probably electrocute themselves if left alone for too long, there's still zero opportunity to charge anywhere. I thus predict a veritable avalanche of phones which suddenly lose their charge when coming near the Underground, at least, that's what the owners will say. In reality, they're probably saving power by going into flight mode..

[elsergiovolador]

Overground coverage

There are still areas in London that barely have any network coverage. Are they going to improve that first?

[ShadowSystems]

Re: Overground coverage

Part of a properly designed cellular network is the fiber optic backbone that allows massive data transmissions that pure wireless broadcasts have yet to match. Part of the problem of cell coverage is the inability to lay said fiber. By laying the fiber in the tunnels below, the feeder fiber from masts to the backbone fiber can be made much less expensively. If the fiber gets installed in the tunnels & the cell carriers are allowed to piggyback on the infrastructure, it will then boost the cell coverage & overall signal strength in those previously not/improperly covered areas.

[Len]

Re: Overground coverage

Why would Transport for London be responsible for mobile coverage outside the tunnels?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Overground coverage

No, but I suspect that wiring the tunnels also provides the carrier infrastructure to get better coverage in the denser areas*.

*_{By "denser areas" I mean built-up zones, not pools of lowered intellectual capability :)}

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Overground coverage

"By "denser areas" I mean built-up zones, not pools of lowered intellectual capability"

Have you *been* to London?

[s. pam]

El Reg you’ve failed to mention

Virgin/EE already have this in a lot of stations…and it’s another reason to take the bus in Londonium as the last bastion of mobile free zones will soon be gone.

Not an improvement one bit!

[werdsmith]

Re: El Reg you’ve failed to mention

Also, it’s also only about the tunnels in the centre. For example, most of the Piccadilly line out to Heathrow is overground and people just use their phones as normal already.

[Imhotep]

Ridden Out Of Town On A Rail

I wonder if we'll see an epidemic of cell phone zombies walking off the platform and on to the tracks?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Ridden Out Of Town On A Rail

Why do you think they paint the Tube head ends red?

[ARGO]

Re: Ridden Out Of Town On A Rail

Presumably that's why they did it on the Jubilee Line first - it has platform gates.

[Anonymous Coward]

I’m going back to carrying a large portable hi-fi (aka boombox, but the term didn’t exist… ) on my shoulder banging out 80s hip hop to piss you all off…

If ever there was a reason never to visit London again….

[Timbo]

"I’m going back to carrying a large portable hi-fi (aka boombox, but the term didn’t exist… ) "

In my day, they were called "Ghetto Blasters" and there was a serious amount of competition, between Sharp, JVC and others as to who could produce the biggest, loudest, bad-ass radio/cassette player between them.

In the end I think Sharp won, with products like the GF-777

http://www.wikiboombox.com/tiki-index.php?page=Sharp+GF-777

And if you needed more speakers, try a Panasonic RX-A5

http://www.wikiboombox.com/tiki-index.php?page=Panasonic+RX-A5

and of course not only were some of these "boxes" physically large, but they also required a significant number of D type batteries, which added to the carrying weight !

[Anonymous Coward]

Here you go then, it has wheels and is even rechargeable. Have fun :).

[Anonymous Coward]

I can’t see a slot for a cassette tape?

[Phil O'Sophical]

Karaoke Compatible with Equaliser Options

Sadly I suppose we're not taking about Edward Woodward here?

[Mark Exclamation]

And as a bonus, BAI Communications is not a Chinese company.