News

WiFi access on the London Underground system has inched a step forward, after BT announced it will launch a new trial of wireless Internet Access services at Charing Cross tube station. The six month pilot scheme will cover access only on platforms and in the ticket halls at the central London station. BT, which is funding the trial, said the service will be free to its Openzone customers and those with unlimited Fon WiFi minutes. Mobile customers from many other carriers will be able to roam onto the service. 

Charing Cross has some 68,000 passengers passing through it per day and a spokesman for the Underground service confirmed that any of them with internet connected devices will be able to get on the Web, throughout the station. However, there are no plans as yet to extend connectivity onto the trains themselves. 

London Mayor, Boris Johnson, has promised that his city will boast wireless internet and mobile phone coverage on the underground system by the time the Olympics kick off in mid-2012. In typical bullish fashion, the Mayor has vowed to "bash heads together in the mobile phone industry" to connect the underground to the outside world.

Earlier this year, Johnson claimed "London is the home of technological innovation. We in City Hall are doing our best to keep up, and one of our most important projects is called WiFi London. Every lamp-post and every bus stop will one day very soon, and before the 2012 Olympics, be WiFi enabled."

For its part BT seems happy to cover the costs which it says will be relatively low as it will be able to offer its Openzone service across London Underground's existing WiFi network at Charing Cross.

Kulveer Ranger, the mayor of London's transport adviser, said: "An ever-growing commuter populous has been clamouring to be able to check their e-mails and browse the net whilst on the go. This trial at Charing Cross will allow them to do just that whilst on the tube platform.”