Melbourne – The wait for phone reception in the city loop is finally over.
After days of testing the technology has finally been turned. Melbourne commuters could finally have full mobile phone coverage in the City Loop rail tunnels, with some people reporting “consistent” reception as testing gets underway.
Most of the underground City Loop network has remained a phone and internet black spot.
Over the past few months, commuters have been reporting patchy connections in the loop, and in recent days the connection has become much more consistent.
Daniel Bowen from the Public Transport Users Association said it appeared telecommunications authorities had been testing new signals.
“So it appears they’re hopefully on the verge of officially announcing that we finally mobile coverage throughout the city loop,” he told 774 ABC Melbourne.
More than 111,000 commuters use the City Loop every day.
The Victorian Government announced in June last year that a deal had been reached with rail authorities and telcos to deliver the service.
Plans for mobile phone coverage in the city loop first started under the previous Napthine government but faced multiple delays.
The system mirrors those used in the Hong Kong, Singapore and Montreal underground rail systems.