Skip to main content

Eurotunnel offers mobile telephony in Channel Tunnel

Eurotunnel and the British mobile telephone operators EE and Vodafone have signed a ten year agreement to offer mobile services in the Channel Tunnel. Customers of both operators will have access to 2G and 3G services in the UK to France north tunnel (UK to France). Both EE and Vodafone intend to offer 4G data services throughout the tunnel in the future. This will enable passengers of both Le Shuttle and high speed passenger trains to use their mobile phone or tablet device at any point of the journe
January 9, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Eurotunnel and the British mobile telephone operators EE and 813 Vodafone have signed a ten year agreement to offer mobile services in the Channel Tunnel.  Customers of both operators will have access to 2G and 3G services in the UK to France north tunnel (UK to France).  Both EE and Vodafone intend to offer 4G data services throughout the tunnel in the future.
 
This will enable passengers of both Le Shuttle and high speed passenger trains to use their mobile phone or tablet device at any point of the journey through the Channel Tunnel. The quality of communication will be equivalent to a call made in Paris, London or anywhere above ground.

The news was confirmed and welcomed today by 7510 Axell Wireless, the British company providing the technology using a fibre optic Distributed Antenna System (DAS) to propagate mobile signals, both voice and data, throughout the tunnel.

Ian Brown, CEO of Axell Wireless explained: “Cellular connections in rail transportation are the future. Wireless coverage is the fourth utility – people expect it as a given, wherever they are.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ComNet announces new North American partner
    March 27, 2012
    Communication Networks (ComNet) has been selected by the Talk-A-Phone Company to supply fibre optic media converters and EoVDSL modems (Ethernet over Very High Digital Subscriber Link) for use with their line of VOIP-500 Series of Voice-over-IP phones. Talk-A-Phone will now recommend the use of ComNet USA-manufactured EoVDSL and fiber optic media converter products to their customers for use with their IP-based products.
  • Kapsch: We need to move quicker towards connectivity
    July 27, 2023
    Connectivity requires a lot of different parties to work together – but it’s the only way to get coverage. Alfredo Escribá, chief technology officer of Kapsch, talks to Adam Hill about the value of ‘orchestrated corridors’
  • Why AI could be the saviour of public transport – if we let it
    April 16, 2025
    Get it right and the rewards could be there. Thomas Ableman looks at how transport in the UK – and beyond – might be transformed by artificial intelligence…
  • Thales builds on Canadian connection for transit R&D
    June 20, 2016
    The Canadian province of Ontario is continuing to benefit from its ongoing investment in transit R&D. David Crawford looks at the impact of new investment. Developing the next generation of urban rail signalling solutions worldwide, with the emphasis on transit security and efficiency, is the goal of a recently-created business partnership between the government of the Canadian province of Ontario and Thales Canada. The wholly-owned subsidiary of the France-HQ'd global defence, aerospace and transportation