From Newsgroup: uk.transport.london
From
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/how-london-finally-cracked-mobile-phone-coverage-on-the-underground-86784/
Dotted around London, there are a number of private hotels that arenrCOt the sort of hotel you might expect rCo theyrCOre needed to make mobile phones work on the London Underground.
TheyrCOre not for humans, but for huge racks of computer and electronics equipment rCo and each of the UKrCOs mobile networks is renting space inside them, as this was one of the innovations that allowed phones to work underground in the first place.
While many newer underground railways have had mobile coverage in their
tunnels for years, fitting it into the London Underground kept running into
the same problem rCo it costs a lot of money and needs a lot more space in
the stations than is available.
Classically, each of the mobile networks would install its own kit in each station and manage it, but there simply wasnrCOt enough space for that in LondonrCOs old tube stations, many of which were built before the wireless telegraph was even invented.
However, as radio equipment has become smaller and cleverer, itrCOs now possible for several networks to share the same equipment, and in 2021
Boldyn Networks (then BAI Communications) signed a deal to build a rCLneutral networkrCY that can be leased to mobile networks.
Bodyn has a 20-year concession with Transport for London (TfL) to build and operate the network, and, aside from internal staff time spent managing the project, itrCOs being delivered at no cost to TfL.
The new network doesnrCOt just provide phone coverage for customers; itrCOs also part of the governmentrCOs Emergency Services Network and might, in the future, replace staff radios when theyrCOre being upgraded.
In fact, the customer-facing part of the network, while not insubstantial,
is the smallest part of the whole project. Given the hundreds of millions
it would cost to upgrade the emergency service network and staff
back-of-house radio networks, it makes sense to provide a public service as well.
So, for the past four years, hundreds of miles of cabling have been rolled
out (literally) into the tunnels and stations, while rooms have been filled with computer racks, air conditioners and a host of related equipment.
Installing all this in old tube stations, in an industrial environment
thatrCOs quite hostile to clean equipment and notably lacking in nice
straight walls, has not been easy.
A few deadlines were missed because it took longer to find and clear sites
for the equipment and get sign-offs on approvals, and there was a very
steep learning curve in working in cramped curved spaces, often with just a
few hours each night to get in and back out again.
Although itrCOs taken four years to get about half of the London Underground covered with a phone signal, they now expect the rest to take just a year
to complete. ThatrCOs in part thanks to experience speeding things up, and
also because a lot of the equipment has already gone in over the past four years. All they need are the final bits to complete the job and switch it
on.
So, most of it should be live by the end of this year, with an expectation
that the installers will be packing up their bags for the last time around
the middle of next year. When they pack up, they will leave behind 800km of cabling inside the tunnels, around 1km of cables and several server racks inside each station rCo oh, and some hotels.
rCa continues (with photos)
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