Massive connectivity upgrade for London Underground

Boldyn Networks has been selected to build the 4G mobile infrastructure that will carry the Emergency Services Network across the London Underground, covering 137 underground stations on the Tube, Docklands Light Railway and London Overground.

The rollout will be delivered alongside EE and Transport for London and aims to replace the ageing Airwave radio system currently used by police, fire and ambulance services across Great Britain. The British Transport Police are expected to be the largest user of the new network.

More than four million passengers travel on the Tube every day, alongside the frontline responders who attend incidents on it.

ESN is a critical national infrastructure programme run by the Home Office. It gives emergency services fast, secure voice, video and data communications over EE’s 4G network. Once live, responders gain immediate access to lifesaving data, imagery and live video underground, where Airwave has historically struggled.

EE is delivering the mobile service layer. Boldyn is building the in-station and in-tunnel infrastructure that pushes signal below ground. TfL is hosting it across one of the most engineering-complex transport environments in the UK.

Boldyn has around 400 engineers working overnight to deliver the project during the limited hours the Tube is closed.

The same neutral host network being built for ESN also carries consumer 4G and 5G from EE, Vodafone, Three UK and Virgin Media O2.

That shared design is why TfL has been able to bundle public safety and passenger connectivity into a single programme rather than running two parallel builds.

A vitally important upgrade

“Keeping our customers and London’s emergency services personnel safe while they travel and operate across our network is our top priority,” said Rebecca Bissell, Transport for London’s Director of Technology Products and Operations.

“That means ensuring frontliners are equipped with immediate access to lifesaving information to respond more effectively to emergency situations and keep London moving safely.” 

She added that delivering these new capabilities within the London Underground presents unique engineering challenges because it is one of the UK’s most complex transport environments.

This was echoed by Paul Osborne, Chief Commercial Officer UK at Boldyn Networks.

“Access to connectivity for the emergency services can’t be compromised, especially in an environment as complex as the London Underground. Critically, ESN will ensure first responders can stay connected when it matters most, with access to the data and tools they need to respond quickly, safely and successfully.

“”We’re proud to continue our work with TfL and EE to help safeguard the millions of daily passengers across the London Underground network.” 

What the upgrade means for ordinary Londoners

The headline benefit is faster emergency response below ground. Today, an officer or paramedic dealing with an incident in a Tube tunnel relies on Airwave voice radio. That limits what information can be passed to or from the surface during a live situation.

ESN running over 4G changes that. Bodycam video, real-time police database access and high-resolution imagery can all flow during an incident.

On a network carrying more than four million passengers a day, the gap between voice-only and data-rich communications is the difference between minutes and seconds when something goes wrong.

For ordinary passengers, the same infrastructure that carries ESN also carries the consumer 4G and 5G service from all four UK operators. The two services share the underlying neutral host network.

That is why the public safety upgrade and the passenger connectivity rollout are arriving on the same timeline rather than being treated as separate projects.

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