Vodafone UK First to Jump on London Underground 4G Network

Vodafone UK has become the first UK operator to confirm that they will help Transport for London (TfL) to pilot a new 4G (mobile broadband and voice) network through tunnels and at station platforms on the London Underground (tube trains), which will start with the eastern half of the Jubilee line from March 2020.

The TfL project was first unveiled in July 2019 (here) and aims to make 4G services available across the whole of their London Underground (tube trains) network by the “mid-2020s“; we assume that means completion somewhere around 2024-2026. However at the time they hadn’t yet signed-up any suppliers to support their effort, until now.

Vodafone said that bringing 4G to passengers on the Jubilee line, from North Greenwich to Westminster, will be is a significant undertaking. Overall some 50-100 engineers will work nights for six months to install and test huge amounts of equipment, such as 16,000km of new fibre optic cable. There is also the potential for 5G connectivity in the future. We meant to report this yesterday but the other London story took priority.