Disqus
London Underground has decided to delay a plan to run mobile phone coverage on the “Tube” (subway), apparently due to a lack of “credible proposals” from suppliers. Gadzooks, wonder what that could mean? Well read on and you shall find out!
There was supposed to be a trial last year, which interestingly would have been on the Waterloo and City line – this is the one that runs solely between Waterloo and Bank stations, and is actually unconnected to any other line – providing a perfect testbed.
However, neither the trial, nor any real services will be going ahead for now – providing coverage, like with all infrastructure deployments, has ended up being prohibitively expensive, due to the unique constraints of a tunnelled system. Having said all of this, other cities such as Beijing and Moscow do have network coverage underground – but I can only assume they figured a way to make the economics work for them.
Ho-hum – well no facebook updating or text messaging sending for the near future on the Tube then. I’ll just have to play an iPhone game instead 
[Via: Cellular News]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
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Captain Rotten
