After a successful pilot test run at Charing Cross tube station last year. Virgin Media will be rolling out free Wi-Fi across 80 of 
the Capital’s tube stations this summer and bringing with it a slew of new jobs to the capital.
For busy commuters, having access to emails and social media on tube platforms and public areas of the tube station will clearly be of great convenience. In order to increase the capital’s connectivity levels, Virgin Media has begun a new recruitment drive to add new IT jobs, as well as engineering, management and marketing roles to their growing London team.
Virgin Media’s project has boosted London employment within the company itself, it has also had a knock on effect of increasing the number of positions required by security solutions group G4S who recently won the contract for the London Olympics. G4S have experienced a surge of more than 50,000 applicants for their proposed 10,000 staff positions. Ranging from security staff to project management jobs, G4S has a major task ahead to make the tube safe during the Olympics rush of extra visitors but no shortage of applicants who are eager to make it happen.
The initial pilot carried out at Charing Cross during 2011 was deemed extremely successful by Transport for London (TfL) and well received by passengers. Research from the Charing Cross pilot found that over half of London Underground passengers surveyed felt that Wi-Fi access would make their experience of using the tube better. Most said that they would like to see this service rolled out to more stations on the Underground and that connecting to a wireless broadband hotspot with a Wi-Fi enabled device at a Tube station was very useful to them.
Virgin media will provide the Wi-Fi access at the 80 tube stations after winning the contract over Chinese based Huawei. A Virgin spokesman told the Guardian newspaper that the service is being provided at no cost to the London Underground network itself as it is being funded from the company’s capital expenditure budget of some £640m for 2012.
The service will initially be free to passengers during the Olympics and Paralympics. After these events have finished, the service will be free to Virgin customers and other passengers will be able to access the Wi-Fi service on a pay-as-you-go basis.
The access of Wi-Fi availability in the tube stations also offers opportunities to TfL employees and will allow them to become much more mobile. TfL’s CIO Steve Townsend said: “It affects us greatly. Once we’ve got that capability rolled out, we can dramatically change how we deliver services to Transport for London. No longer are we tied to a fixed copper and fibre in the ground delivery mechanism. We can reduce costs maybe on the networks, maybe on the terminal equipment, and the type of equipment we interface with is dramatically different.”
The upgrade will allow TfL employees to roll out mobile devices or smartphones to workers, allowing them to benefit from the technology used by many other professionals in UK IT jobs. This in turn will contribute to TfL delivering a more efficient, convenient and modern service to London commuters.
Image Source: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2053279