The tube just got a Wi-Fi upgrade – and there’s more 5G than ever

London Underground train pulling in to Tower Hill station on 30th November 2025 in London, United Kingdom. The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving Greater London. The Underground has its origins in the Metropolitan Railway, the worlds first underground passenger railway. (photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

(Image credit: Mike Kemp / Getty Images)

The tube brings a lot to your day: grumpy commuters, uncomfortably close contact with virtual strangers at a horrendously early hour, and an uncomfortable 15-20 minutes where your phone drops in and out of playing music which you forgot to download so you could actually play it offline. However, soon that may change – well, the signal bit, not the body slamming strangers, otherwise the London Underground really would be unrecognisable.

High-speed mobile coverage across the Tube network has been rumoured for a while – and by rumoured, we mean promised on posters you read whilst avoiding eye contact with other people whilst you descend the elevators to the tube. Now, serious progress has been made on the roll out of said mobile coverage.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - 2025/07/16: Passengers seen inside a London Underground train. (Photo by Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The first of the new coverage across a section of the Circle and District line is now live, as well as key stations including Euston Square, Cannon Street, and Battersea Power Station – so now you have zero excuse to ghost your boss on slack to tell them you’re running late.

More spots are expected to get the coverage glow up in over 2026, including Kings Cross St Pancras which is set to go live in the next few months. Currently, 62 out of 121 Tube stations (that are actually underground underground) now receive mobile coverage in ticket halls, corridors, and platforms, with work firmly underway to extend the coverage across the tube’s tunnels. Currently in the top spots for receiving full coverage are the Northern Line and Metropolitan Line, both of which are expected to have coverage in their tunnels by the end of summer 2026.

The project aims to have the whole Tube network supplied with mobile coverage by the end of 2026, and according to TFL, the whole plan is, ahem, on track. All four mobile network operators (Three UK, EE, Vodafone, and Virgin Media O2) are involved in the rollout, so no matter who your provider is, you can still experience some quality doomscrolling on your commute.

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Hermione Blandford is the Content Editor for Shortlist’s social media which means you can usually find her scrolling through Instagram and calling it work, or stopping random people in the street and accosting them with a mini mic. She has previously worked in food and drink PR for brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Gordon's, The Singleton, Lagavulin and Don Julio which means she is a self confessed expert in spicy margaritas and pints, regularly popping into the pub in the name of research.

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