TfL Image - Customers using mobiles on Elizabeth line trains

UK: Transport for London and neutral telecoms infrastructure provider Boldyn Networks have deployed public 4G and 5G mobile coverage in the Elizabeth Line tunnels between Liverpool Street station and the Royal Oak portal to the west of Paddington. This comes after coverage at the stations went live earlier in the year.

The tunnels between Liverpool Street and Whitechapel will be connected in the coming weeks, TfL said on July 3, and the whole Elizabeth Line will have mobile coverage by the end of summer.

TfL Image - Tube map showing below ground 4G and 5G coverage July 2024

TfL and Boldyn Networks are also working to provide coverage across the entire London Underground network in 2025, as well as on the Docklands Light Railway and between Highbury & Islington and New Cross on the London Overground.

The installation of equipment including more than 2 000 km of cabling involves around 500 people working overnight to minimise disruption.

All four UK mobile network operators — Three UK, EE, Vodafone and Virgin Media O2 — are taking part.

Amir Dawoodbhai, who is a member of TfL’s Youth Panel, said mobile coverage ’enhances perceptions of safety, accessibility and general user-friendliness as young people start to experience London independently for the first time, helping to guide them through what can sometimes feel like a complex transport system’.

It will also give staff better connectivity and host a new Emergency Services Network.