Vodafone UK Follows EE to Deploy 5G on London Underground
Mobile operator Vodafone has confirmed that customers using the Notting Hill Gate station on the London Underground have started to receive their ultrafast 5G (mobile broadband) signal. The tunnels from Holland Park to Queensway (Central Line) and Archway to Kentish Town (Northern Line) will follow by the weekend.
The move to introduce 5G on the previously 4G network doesn’t come as a surprise, not least because it follows only a day after EE (BT) announced an identical upgrade (here), and we suspect Three UK will be the next to confirm. This is because all of the operators are sharing the same network platform from 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 fibre-fed 4G and “5G Ready” 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).
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Andrea Dona, Vodafone’s UK Chief Network Officer, said:
“Our mission is to take connectivity everywhere and anywhere, so we are thrilled to switch on 5G connectivity on the London Underground network. Notting Hill Gate is only the latest step as we bring the benefits of our network to other platforms and tunnels across the Tube.”
We expect to see a fairly rapid expansion of the new mobile infrastructure on the London Underground this year, although it would be easier if all of the mobile operators were more synchronised in their announcements, but then they aren’t all at an identical stage of adoption. In particular, O2 seems to be trailing the others.
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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What is O2 up to? They seemed to have completely stopped investing in their network for “Priority” perks
Haven’t they merged with Virgin? Virgin Media Wifi is available in a lot of London Tube and train stations, used to be available via Vodafone as well, but they pulled out now.
It has been really sketchy in the last couple of weeks though and is often turned off completely during morning and evening rush hour (is use it on the Jubilee line between London Bridge and Bond Street)
Why has O2 STILL not turned on even 4G?
What is the hold up? Mark can you please ask?
why is it so important that you have to ask every time? can you really not go without internet for 5 minutes?
O2 is the worst network so chill
why don’t you ask em buddy, they usually respond on twitter.
I’m convinced O2 is only used by those who also believe Tesco Mobile have their own masts. No one who uses more than 500MB of data per month would be happy with their experience on O2.
They are pure horse poo.
O2 users voted for brexit
I joined o2 for a year since I got a good deal. I used roughly 5gb a month and it was horrible. The calls always dropped, and my data speed was always slow. The only good thing was priority. And that got progressively worse. Much happier on Vodafone now but even their network is slow in some areas and has poor reception in shopping centres.
2 phones on Sky mobile (O2 MVNO) and throughput is a measly 2.5mbs and obviously capped.
Same phone in same place on iD ( 3 MVNO) gets 50mbs. Never complaints from giffgaff but never checked speed tests with them.
I get an O2 sim soon, deal to get cheaper vm bb, so will be interesting if O2 throttle too.
O2 are the only provider to offer 4g at my house.
EE I’m lucky to get 3g, Voda is 3g and Three there’s nothing – none of these providers reliably provide more than 2 mbps down (and only vodafone is above 1mpbs).
On o2 I get 20 down pretty much 24/7, and upload is typically at least as good as download.
I’m in Suffolk.
Is it blisteringly fast? No, is it good enough if my VDSL2 line goes down? Yes.
So I think i am their only reasonably happy subscriber – but it’s more based on how bad everyone else is, rather than how good they are.
Maybe in London? Been with Giffgaff/o2 since 2012 and never had any issues… Sure… 4g is kinda stuck at 30mbits but that’s totally stable… And 5g can easily go up to 500mbits… But I’m in Leeds… Never had any issues outside Leeds, though