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By David Meyer, 11 September 2008 14:33

NEWS

Five stations on the Glasgow Subway are to get mobile-phone coverage later this year, marking the first such deployment in the UK.

The first operator to take advantage of the distributed antenna system being installed in the stations will be O2, the company announced on Wednesday. The antenna system is being rolled out by Arqiva, which ordinarily puts such systems in shopping malls or other areas where a concentrated number of users may need in-building coverage.

An O2 spokesperson told silicon.com sister site ZDNet.co.uk on Thursday that the deployment will be the first in the UK involving mobile coverage in a fully underground network. When the system goes live this December, all parts of the five busiest Glasgow stations - at Buchanan Street, St Enoch, Kelvinbridge, Hillhead and Partick - will gain GSM and 3G coverage. This includes ticket areas and passageways, but not within the train tunnels.

O2's spokesperson said some coverage would "bleed into" the actual train tunnels, but it was not yet known how much coverage that would provide. "There is a strong possibility that, at some point in the future, we will extend the service to cover the complete loop of the Glasgow underground," the spokesperson added.

The operator's chief technology officer, Derek McManus, was quoted in Wednesday's statement as saying the deployment should mean O2's customers would be able to "continue conversations on underground platforms or… text friends to say that they'll be arriving in five minutes". The rollout, which also involves the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), follows O2's backing of Glasgow's successful bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Arqiva's antennae are also capable of bringing a wi-fi network underground. No deal to provide this service in Glasgow has yet been announced, but the SPT's assistant chief executive, Gordon Maclennan, was quoted in Wednesday's statement as saying the deployment "opens the door for wider wi-fi coverage in the underground in future".