Britons actually say “yes” to mobile network on London underground
A few days ago, Chinese tech giant Huawei announced that they are ready to invest in a mobile network on the London underground and make it available to travellers ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games.
While this sounds like good news to us, and maybe to you, an independent survey stated that some three quarters of the Londoners oppose the project, being worried that there’s a higher potential threat from thieves and muggers by using your handset while travelling.
False, we say! According to our research, Londoners DO want mobile coverage on the tube.
Given the large number of people playing noisy (and too many of us annoyingly so) games on their handsets, we’re pretty sure Londoners wouldn’t mind having network coverage or access to the Internet.
That’s why we conducted a new survey targeting over 1,300 city dwellers , with some 70-percent responding “yay” to the question Do you want mobile coverage on the underground? This evidence dramatically contradicts headlines in the media from earlier in the week, which stated that only 24% favoured the move.
These are the summary results.
But 4 in 5 Londoners want air conditioning before a mobile network
Our research did reveal one other very interesting opinion; Londoners are indeed very keen to get connected underground, however they’d prefer to see resources spent on the more basic of needs – to feel comfortable and relaxed when travelling. Which is why they would trade mobile access for comfort and have air conditioning installed on the Tube first. See the results below.
Are you against mobile access on the tube? Do you fear it could lead to terrorist attacks or would you be upset with having to listen to others’ conversations while travelling?
Do you have other reasons why it should be called off or you totally agree with the project?
You can leave your comments below.
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I think text and internet access would be great on the Tube, but would really oppose a move to allow voice calls – I don’t think there’s a need for them. Everyone has mobile phones these days, so for the short duration of a Tube journey a quick text or email will do the trick to tell someone where you are / what time you’ll arrive / that you are stuck in a tunnel. Even then the annoying text alert sounds will be enough. Anyhting more major that requires a conversation can realistically wait until you get off the train, like it has to now. Perhaps mobile phone reception could be extended to stations and just kept out of tunnels?
The Tube is a really confined environment, especially in a tunnel and most people’s comfort zone relating to the amount of personal space they like is tested to the limits. In that already unpleasant environment to have to listen to the inane comments of many would undoubtedly casue tempers to boil over. At the moment the joke is that there’s a rule that most people sit in silence on the Tube, which makes it more pleasant. Throw into a crowded carriage someone’s conversation carrying casual racism, sexism, homophobia, swearing, unflattering description of someone further down who they aren’t aware can hear them and you have a recipe for disaster.
The argument that a phone call could help alert the emergency services in the event of an accident is a non-starter. LU knows where its trains are and knows when something has gone wrong with them. They call the emergency services. The 999 operator service would work LESS efficiently if they had to deal with numerous calls from commuters telling them about the same incident.
During the 7/7 bombings the entire Tube network was evacuated in an orderly manner in around an hour, with no further injuries to anyone – and all without passengers calling 999 from the tunnels. Imagine the panic that would have ensued if people were getting calls from the surface telling them a bomb had gone off. People would have been crushed in the stampede to get out, whilst actually being in no danger. As it was the ‘power surge’ explanation that was used meant that the evacuation was calm and people found out the truth later, when they were not at risk of a panic induced crush.