British passengers using Eurotunnel will finally be able to use their mobile devices on their journey to France (without roaming charges) as works are completed by UK mobile operators Vodafone and EE. The announcement follows singing of a 10 year agreement with the Channel tunnel operator to provide the same voice and data services that have been available to French passengers since 2012.
First to bring mobile services will be Vodafone, offering 2G and 3G mobile network coverage on the North Tunnel going in the direction from UK to France, going live from March 2014. 4G services will become available from summer 2014 for the entire 30 minute journey to customers of EE (which includes Orange and T-Mobile customers) and Vodafone. There are plans to get the remaining two British operators, Three and O2, involved in the future. Travellers using either the Eurotunnel shuttle (for cars) or Eurostar train will be able to utilise this mobile coverage.
Mobile operator EE hopes that the news will be welcomed by passengers as it aims to enhance these underground journeys for commuting business workers and holiday makers as "the time underground can be spent online preparing for meetings, checking emails, planning travel routes, researching a holiday destination or watching streamed movies," according to an EE press release on the agreement.
Chief Technology Officer at EE, Fotis Karonis boasts that the operation of 4G services in the tunnel is "another technology first for EE, and it’s one that will make a big difference to business workers and people going away on holiday." However, as mentioned above, the underground portion of the journey takes only approximately 30 minutes.
Around 20 million passengers travel through the Channel Tunnel each year. Eurostar has plans to introduce Wi-Fi but due to issues with the tendering process and technical aspects of delivery it won't be available until sometime in 2015. Also we don't know if this Wi-Fi service will be free to use or require some kind of payment.
