The 2012 London Olympics will be bringing new and exciting technology to the UK, an announcement has revealed that the channel tunnel will be fitted with mobile 3G coverage similar to that that will also be installed on the London Underground.
Travellers on the channel tunnel will no longer suffer wireless blackout when travelling between the UK and France, the new coverage will be supplied by a conglomerate of network providers which will eventually all be licensed by the UK governing body Ofcom.
The British offering will be shored up by O2, Everything Everywhere and 3, the British based companies will finance the Dover to Calais tunnel. The French providers will be Orange, SFR and Bouyages who will foot the bill for the Calais to Dover tunnel. Once licensed the project will be joint funded by all of the providers costing a reported £20 million to fit out the entire 31.4 miles of tunnel.
A report in the Telegraph has revealed that Vodafone will spearhead the project with Alcatel-Lucent installing the hardware. Although this is pretty exciting news it’s not the only tech to come out of the 2012 games – the London Underground will also be fitted with 2G and 3G networks costing an estimated £150 million.
Do you think this expense is justified and will it benefit public transport users?
via: PC Mag
