Some UK users will have to pay for Wi-Fi on the Tube next year

Mobile users in the UK will have to pay careful attention to which mobile operator's services they subscribe to if they still want free Wi-Fi services on the London Underground next year.

Virgin Media has announced that it will start charging £2 for one day's Wi-Fi access on the underground train service in the UK capital, while a weekly pass will cost £5 and a monthly pass £15.

Nevertheless, it seems that only O2 UK and 3 UK users will be subjected to these charges: Virgin Media customers will still be able to get free Wi-Fi on the Tube, as will customers of EE and Vodafone after the two mobile operators signed deals with Virgin Media to become wholesale partners.

Virgin switched on the underground wireless connectivity service ahead of the London Olympics this summer and extended universal free access until early 2013. The Register noted that more than 700,000 travellers have made use of the service, but pointed out that connectivity is only available on the platforms and not on the trains themselves.

According to TechRadar, Wi-Fi is available on the platforms of 72 tube stations at present, and will be coming to a further 20 stations in December 2012 and another 28 in early 2013.

The next 20 stations are Oval, Holloway Road, Clapham Common, Chalk Farm, Bounds Green, Mornington Crescent, Hampstead, Lancaster Gate, South Kensington, Notting Hill Gate, Belsize Park, Russell Square, Balham, Camden Town, Finsbury Park, Highgate, Seven Sisters, Swiss Cottage, Turnpike Lane and Wood Green.

Virgin Media recently discarded plans to bid for UK LTE spectrum, instead focusing on building a nationwide Wi-Fi and small cell network that would be marketed to UK operators on a wholesale basis.

For more:
- see this Virgin Media press release
- see this TechRadar article
- see this The Register article

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