Glasgow 1 London 0
Although not as large (and some would say technologically advanced) as the England’s capital, London, Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow has got ‘one up’ on the city with the big ferris wheel…
Mobile phone Carrier O2 has announced underground mobile phone coverage for Glasgow’s – notorious – subway system, allowing passengers to make and receive calls and text messages, and even 3G access, making travel even less fun in the foul smelling, sticky seated carriages.
Underground mobile phone coverage will be rolled out from December and will initially cover five Glasgow underground stations, including Buchanan Street, St Enoch and Kelvinbridge. The service will initially only cover the platforms and ticket halls, but it will soon be available on the trains themselves.
The changes are the result of O2 signing a deal with Glasgow’s tube system operator – Strathclyde Partnership for Transport – to make use of a “multi-user distributed antenna” system.
Derek McManus, O2’s CTO, said: “This is the first time that any mobile phone network in the UK has implemented a service like this.”
Although London Underground doesn’t provide this service (besides the fact 60 percent of the track is above ground) O2 added that Glasgow’s development would act as a benchmark for similar installations.
Underground mobile phone use has been talked about since 2005, when London Underground said that a six-month trial would take place in April this year on the Waterloo and City line.
Just like the UK train system, the trials haven’t arrived on time. The earliest London could see their development is mid-2009.
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