London 2012 Olympics Tickets Tours Hotels: French British Working to Mobile Coverage in Channel Tunnel

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For those Spyns' clients planning a swing through Paris before hopping the Eurostar train to London, rest assured your mobile gadgets will continue working in the Chunnel. It is understood that Britain's four mobile operators – Vodafone, O2, Everything Everywhere and 3 – have joined forces with their counterparts in France to share the expected £20m ($30 million) cost of providing mobile coverage along the tunnel's entire 31.4 mile length. Spyns is a Canadian tour operator providing London 2012 summer Olympics tour packages to clients in continental Europe and North America.

British operators will share the cost of providing coverage in the Dover to Calais tunnel, with France's Orange, SFR and Bouygues splitting the cost of installing the system in the Calais to Dover tunnel. Alcatel-Lucent, the French telecoms infrastructure company, has been contracted to install the technology. Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator, confirmed that it is preparing to issue spectrum licences to allow French and British operators to share airwaves inside the tunnel. We haven't seen this kind of cooperation between Britain and France since the Second World War.

It is understood that Vodafone is spearheading the ambitious Channel Tunnel project on the British side of the Channel. However, a Vodafone spokesman refused to comment. As The Sunday Telegraph reported earlier this year, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, played a key role in speeding up the project, which has been talked about for years. Mr Johnson also took it upon himself to "bash heads together in the mobile phone industry" to bring 2G and 3G coverage to the London Underground in advance of the 2012 Olympics.


Mobile operators have agreed to collectively invest £150m ($235 million) in bringing the mobile network to virtually all of the city's Tube tunnels. French technology company Thales is the preferred bidder to install the technology, which is likely to be managed by Huawei, a Chinese telecoms company. Coverage is likely to be provided by a very long transmitter snaking along the top of the tunnel, with antennas on the ends of each carriage. Similar "leaky feeder" technology was used to establish communications between the trapped Chilean miners and their rescuers. Passengers will be able to make voice calls and browse the internet over the 3G network.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.