Vodafone UK Quietly Scrap London Underground WiFi Support

Mobile operator Vodafone UK has quietly dropped support for Virgin Media’s (VMO2) Wi-Fi network on the London Underground, which means that customers who want to get online with this wireless broadband service will now have to pay for a pass instead of connecting for free (1 day = £3, 1 Week = £5 or 1 Month = £15).

At present around 260 London Underground stations are covered with WiFi as a result of Virgin Media’s deployment some years ago, which was also made available to customers of Vodafone, EE and O2 via way of a wholesale agreement (customers of VM can of course also benefit). Meanwhile, anybody else has to pay for a special pass.

However, a number of Vodafone’s customers recently noticed that they could no longer access the service, which prompted one of their support agents to issue the following response via Twitter (here).

Vodafone’s Twitter Support said:

“We have taken the decision not to continue our WiFi service on the London Underground. We continue to supply 4G on the Jubilee Line between North Greenwich and Westminster as part of our partnership with London Underground.

We also continue to invest in our network above ground across London, with coverage improvements at key stations, including Charing Cross, London Bridge and Waterloo in particular.”

The move makes sense given the work they’re doing on the Jubilee Line (here). On the other hand, Transport for London (TfL) has previously stated that their ambition is to extend such 4G services across the whole of the Underground (tube trains) network, but this won’t be complete until the “mid-2020s” (c.2025).

As one of several disgruntled customers said in response, “Why didn’t you tell us, We pay for a service and this was part of the services available. Of course, if I’d known, I would have changed provider. I only found out when I asked at a station.”

A related report (here) suggests that Vodafone might have started to drop WiFi support on the underground two months ago, although people only recently started to notice after they began returning to work. Meanwhile, Virgin Media’s WiFi page continues to list Vodafone as being supported (here).