London Underground to Get Wi-Fi for 2012 Olympics

Product-Reviews: Next year the Olympic Games are going to be held in London, and it has just been announced that the London Underground network will see 120 stations getting Wi-Fi coverage. The company responsible for the network Transport for London has announced a bidder for the work will be chosen by the end of this year.

Ian Mansfield over at cellular-news is reporting that a trial has been taking place since last November at Charing Cross. The trail has been looking at how the technology worked and how passengers found the service. The first step for a wider Wi-Fi service on the Tube network would be to open up the service that London Underground staff currently use at sixteen stations.

So far more than half of passengers that were surveyed found that having Wi-Fi access made their experience of the Tube network better. Many said they would like to see the service available at more stations on the network, and having a wireless broadband hotspot was useful.

It is expected there will be a lot of interest in providing the service from companies who are already existing service providers, or other organizations looking to expand into the public sector. Unfortunately the service will not be available on the trains themselves.