EE UK Deploys 5G Mobile Broadband on London Underground
Mobile operator EE has announced that they’ve upgraded their new 4G mobile network on the London Underground by enabling the latest ultrafast 5G based mobile broadband connectivity, which will initially only be live across three stations – Archway and Tufnell Park (Northern line), as well as Notting Hill Gate (Central line).
Just to recap. The deployment reflects a partnership with BAI Communications. At present, BAI holds a 20-year concession deal with Transport for London (TfL), which was signed in June 2021 (here) and allows them to build the new 4G infrastructure and to then make it available via wholesale for Mobile Network Operators (MNO) to harness. The goal of this is to cover the entire London Underground by late 2024 (ticket halls, platforms and tunnels).
The initial 4G network has already been deployed across the eastern half of the Jubilee Line and, at the end of last year, they added six more stations including Holland Park, Notting Hill Gate, Queensway, Archway, Tufnell Park and Kentish Town. As above, some of those have now been upgraded to deliver 5G connectivity too.
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In addition to continuous 5G coverage from ticket hall to platform at all three stations, 5G is also live within the tunnel segment at Notting Hill Gate and the same will be true for Archway and Tufnell Park shortly. “This will enable passengers to communicate with friends and colleagues or stream content uninterrupted,” said EE (to be fair.. a good 4G link would have had that covered too).
Greg McCall, BT’s Chief Networks Officer, said:
“We’re proud to bring 5G coverage to the London Underground for the first time, maintaining our position at the forefront of what is a hugely important and transformative project for the city. It’s also a further demonstration of our ambition to deliver 5G connectivity anywhere in the UK by 2028, as we continue to make great progress in our efforts to build an unbeatable 5G network.”
The 5G upgrade will next be extended to the tunnels surrounding each of the stations in the near future as part of EE and BAI’s ongoing rollout, which will also see both 4G and 5G arrive at a host of new stations throughout 2023 and beyond. But we’d expect to see similar announcements from rival operators, which all share the same infrastructure.
As a side note, EE’s mobile network connects to the BAI infrastructure via mobile base stations from Nokia’s AirScale radio access portfolio – powered by their new ReefShark System-on-Chip (SoC). Nokia is supplying and installing the equipment, activating and validating the infrastructure for EE’s mobile services.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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4G can get quite congested, so that is most likely why EE have opted for 5G even though 4G would normally be sufficient.
4G would have been sufficient depending on which band they were rolling out… but then again if someone sees 5G on their handset they automatically assume it is better, we mostly the answer is yes, but not always which the forums of this site are testament.
Biggest Yawn!
But yet you still had the energy to leave a comment
Mark,
Can you ask O2 what the delay is in them turning it on?
Still no service.
The tinfoil hat brigade will have a field day!
Leave them to it. Why does it matter so much to you what they think?
I can’t think of anything worse than being surrounded by pretentious Londoners on the tube all talking about their self-importance.
I take it that you don’t own AirPods? And its only in London that people talk on public transport? Also presume you ain’t a Londoner too…
Last capital to get any service in the underground. gg
But the current system isn’t even working? Virgin Media WiFi is turned off more than half of the time and requires sign in every day at every station. The 4G rarely works at all and when it does, it’s usually showing the dreaded exclamation mark of no internet. I travel the part of the Jubilee line that is covered by these 2 systems and the last 4 days of traveling neither system was working, Bond Street regularly turns off WiFi.
We have a brand new Elizabeth Line and it has no internet at all in most stations, leave alone between stations.
Well yes, that’s why cellular networks are being rolled out..? Reminds me of a comment from someone I know who might have known a little better: “5G… I don’t even get 3G where I live…” … exactly …
Some people don’t know they are born. Go back to a form of communication used by earlier generations – homing pigeons! I often see them on UndergrounD trains, they know where the trains are going and where to alight. Sponsor a pigeon!
Long overdue, hopefully to be completed soon.
As to the company behind the infrastructure, maybe it’s time to let them provide a continuous 5G ready network covering the national rail network as they already will have experience serving a metro network eg the London Underground.
There’s a project by FirstGroup (Rail-5G) being rolled out to some lines. I think it’s Avanti West Coast and South Western Rail (currently). I’m surprised they aren’t doing it on the Great Western Railway line (Bristol to London Paddington, Cheltenham to London Paddington and I believe some form of service that runs into Cardiff) but I’m guessing it’ll happen eventually.
I’ve tried the 5G service which runs between Archway and Kentish Town, it’s 5G in all the tunnels in both directions.
I did a speed test in the tunnels and got 450mb down and 50mb up, very impressive although I imagine not many people were using it at the time.
Couple of weekends ago I was using the central line, pretty sure I had 5G around Notting Hill Gate, on Three’s network.