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Commuters rejoice, you no longer have to download your Spotify playlists and podcasts in advance, because the tube finally has 4G! From yesterday (December 21) 4G (and 5G ready) was introduced on the Central line between Holland Park and Queensway. Later this week, it’ll be available on the Northern line between Kentish Town and Archway.
TfL has done away with annoying and frankly unreliable tube wifi, instead, allowing phones to link up to signal from their providers. And it’s not only at stations, it will be coming to the tunnels as well, so you can blissfully scroll through TikTok for an entire tube journey. At the moment, its only available to customers on EE and Vodafone, but in the new year people on Three UK and Virgin Mobile/O2 will gain access.
The sections on the Central and Northern line join the Jubilee line between Westminster to Canning Town, which until now has been the only part of the 'deep tube' where there is mobile phone signal.
Testing will take place over Christmas at Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Circus and Camden Town for the next stages of adding connectivity.
Shashi Verma, chief technology officer at TfL, said: 'It’s great that we have begun to introduce 4G mobile coverage to more stations, meaning that around ten percent of our stations that are underground will shortly be connected.'
It’s expected that the whole of London Underground will have 4G access by the end of 2024. Huzzah!