Boris brings mobile to tube for 2012?

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Mobile coverage may be coming to the London Underground within the next two years, according to reports.

The Sunday Telegraph claimed Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was in talks with UK mobile operators to see if the task could be achieved in time for the Olympic Games in 2012.

However, this is not the first time the proposal for mobile signal on the tube has been made and past plans have faced severe delays.

Ken Livingstone asked for pitches on how best to bring a mobile network to the transport network back in 2005 and plans were even hatched to trial technologies on the Waterloo and City line.

But in 2009 Transport for London (TfL) claimed no “credible” tenders had been brought forward, so the scheme was frozen.

Questions still hang over how such an expensive project – estimated to cost hundred of millions of pounds – would be funded but, when the plans emerged five years ago, a promise was made that operators would foot the bill rather than the taxpayer.

If Johnson manages to reignite the strategy, it could pave the way for further underground access such as Wi-Fi or DAB radio, as Livingstone had initially planned.

IT PRO contacted the Greater London Authority for confirmation of the plans, but it had not responded to our request at the time of publication.

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