Tube Mobile Coverage quietly "shelved"?

Not heard about this officially yet but the Inquirer report that "The plan to enable mobile phones to work on London's underground railway network (aka The Tube) has been quietly shelved according to Martin Cassidy, president of Innovawireless."


Around two years ago TfL said "It is our intention to commence a trial at a small number of Tube stations in late 2007 with the aim of introducing mobile phone and new technology provision at stations from summer 2008." This never happened.

Then in March 2007 we heard that the technology was trickier to install and it was delayed even further "The earliest the trial will begin is in April next year and if it is successful, will be extended across the Tube network. LU said the earliest date mobile phone coverage could be extended across the Tube network is mid-2009."

The Inquirer continue "Cassidy pitched his previous company's - Zinwave's - wares to Transport for London but found that the body expected suppliers to bear the brunt of financing the project.

As Cassidy's colleague, Daniel Lewing, pointed out, it is extremely difficult to work on the underground network. He reckons that you've only got two hours max overnight to get things done."

The piece concludes to say that Cassidy is now working for a new company with "hubs that utilise just one sort of antenna to pump a variety of mobile signals around a building. The list includes everything from Wi-fi (802.11 a/b/g) to cellular (GSM, CDMA, TDMA) and 3G (W-CDMA).

Now that London's got a new mayor, in Boris Bimbo Johnson, maybe the project will be revived. Sadly, the INQ never read his manifesto to know his views on mobile phones."