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How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

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Re: How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

#51

Post by hdgvhicv »

SecondHandTofu wrote: post #39
saulr wrote: post #37

Just to add a piece of data to support this: > It turns out the phone signal inside the station can be better than the one above ground I was surprised when I noticed I had 5G in the tunnel, ran a speed test and hit 641Mbps down! https://www.speedtest.net/result/i/6831252952

Like many of London's woes, that's because of planning, councils have to approve infrastructure and block it: https://www.londoncentric.media/p/why-exactly-is-londons-pho... I'd say it's developing-world tier, but a lot of the developing world has really good 5G signal these days.

During Covid people were attacking engineering laying fibre because it was “5g”, and facebook had told them 5g caused Covid.

Re: How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

#52

Post by cm2187 »

p10jkle wrote: post #40
throw567643u8 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This behaviour is so bad on London (above ground) trains, if they ever do 'crack it' and roll out mobile signal to the Underground, those tiny carriages will be unbearable.

There already is signal on many underground lines, and it’s pretty rare that people are playing things out loud in my experience?

London, increasingly common. I’d say a third of the time when I take the tube. Combine that with people making loud calls, 100% of the time. But I find people imposing their music or tiktok videos more obnoxious than a builder discussing his next job a bit loudly.

Re: How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

#53

Post by mgaunard »

SecondHandTofu wrote: post #39
saulr wrote: post #37

Just to add a piece of data to support this: > It turns out the phone signal inside the station can be better than the one above ground I was surprised when I noticed I had 5G in the tunnel, ran a speed test and hit 641Mbps down! https://www.speedtest.net/result/i/6831252952

Like many of London's woes, that's because of planning, councils have to approve infrastructure and block it: https://www.londoncentric.media/p/why-exactly-is-londons-pho... I'd say it's developing-world tier, but a lot of the developing world has really good 5G signal these days.

tl;dr people reject installing ugly masts in densely urbanised neighbourhoods, meaning there often isn't enough capacity for everyone to get fast 5G.

Re: How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

#54

Post by 7952 »

hexbin010 wrote: post #23
esperent wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to excuse other people's behavior but buying a decent pair of noise canceling headphones or earbuds will make putting up with it a whole lot easier. You don't even have to listen to anything, or you can put rain noises and thunderstorms. It's as much better soundscape than public transport.

That also creates a problem that people then can not hear important announcements or be aware of dangers (such as knife wielding attackers, as happened on an LNER train just late last year)

A deaf person wouldn't be able to either. We need better non audible ways of signalling.

Re: How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

#56

Post by 7952 »

Animats wrote: post #16

This is the new system for emergency communications? TfL just finished up an upgrade on that in 2021. That upgrade was built by Thales.[1] That system is purely for operational use, and is not cell phone compatible. It's compatible with the gear cops and fire brigades use. Is it being replaced? As late as 2018, the classic century-old system, with two bare wires on insulators on the tunnel walls, was still maintained…

The classic system does sound pretty elegant really.

Re: How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

#57

Post by hdgvhicv »

cm2187 wrote: post #49
dbish wrote: post #5

Pretty neat but as someone who commutes every day on the New York subway I hope it’s never “cracked” here. Phone usage without headphones is already annoying enough and I greatly appreciate the various people trying to take calls eventually lose service.

The worst is not calls, it is the thousands of zombies hooked up on tiktok 24/7, of course with headphones, so completely unaware and indifferent to their environment, who block tunnels, escalators, turnstiles, etc.

In the 90s we read the paper and dumbed with our magnetic tickets. In the 00s we listened to MP3s while playing snake on an oyster. In the 10s we played Andy birds and listened to iTunes with a credit card at the turnstile. In the 20s we doom scroll and listen to Spotify while tapping out with our phone.

I don’t see the issue.

Re: How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

#58

Post by cedws »

Havoc wrote: post #50
cedws wrote: post #48

Definitely not. Try it in Tokyo, every single line, every single station has high speed coverage. I can’t recall signal ever dropping out for me.

London’s first line predates tokyos by like 60 years and was literally the test ground for how to make underground’s The challenge isn’t the technology but rather the environment you’re trying to retrofit

That's the standard excuse but it's the same on the Elizabeth line which was commissioned only a few years ago.

Re: How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

#59

Post by mgaunard »

dotBen wrote: post #8

One of the frustrating things about international roaming in the UK is typically your plan does not include coverage on this neutral network on the underground

The main problem if you're roaming is that you're considered a lower-priority customer, and since the network is often saturated already, you don't get any bandwidth.

Re: How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

#60

Post by nanna »

Retric wrote: post #14
edent wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is your need for silence more important than other people's need to communicate?

Neither of those things are needs, it’s just wants and preferring your own wants over others is completely normal. Imagine trying to live your life where other people’s desires by default overrode you own.

Because silence is a common good, like clean air. It's everyone's. When people fill it with their noise they effectively privatize it for the duration. When they shout on speakerphone or play their music or blare sound from their apps it's especially selfish.
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