en.Wedoany.com Reported - Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has signed a five-year agreement with wireless infrastructure company Cellnex UK to join the Brighton Main Line (BML) connectivity project, aiming to extend high-speed 5G mobile broadband coverage along the entire route and address mobile signal blackspots.
The Brighton Main Line is a 108-kilometer railway corridor in southern England, connecting London (Victoria and London Bridge stations) with Brighton on the south coast. It serves 300,000 passengers daily with 1,700 train services per day. The route includes major commuter stations such as London Bridge, London Victoria, and Clapham Junction, and connects to Gatwick Airport. It is operated by multiple train operators including Thameslink, Southern, Gatwick Express, Great Western Railway, and London Overground services.
Under the agreement, O2 will gain access to Cellnex UK's purpose-built neutral host infrastructure, rolling out high-speed mobile connectivity (including 5G) to customers along the entire route in the coming months. This follows a similar agreement Cellnex signed with Three UK in 2023, which already allows Three UK customers (VodafoneThree) to use the network. Indoor coverage solutions are currently being deployed at London Victoria, London Bridge, and Clapham Junction stations to enhance mobile connectivity at these three most important stations, which handle approximately 19% of all rail passenger traffic entering and leaving the capital.
Additionally, the UK government's 10-year industrial strategy last year committed £41 million to introduce low Earth orbit broadband satellite connectivity on all mainline trains to address onboard connectivity issues. The "Project Reach" is also separately deploying ultrafast fiber optic cables across 1,000 kilometers of major railway lines to eliminate mobile signal blackspots in tunnels on key rail routes.
Steve Cray, Managing Director of Cellnex UK, stated that this partnership represents one of the most significant end-to-end telecommunications infrastructure deployments on UK railways to date, aiming to set a new standard for the rail network. Professor Robert Joyce, Director of Mobile Access Engineering at O2, noted that improving connectivity on the Brighton Main Line, as part of the company's £700 million mobile transformation program, will deliver better coverage and capacity for passengers.
Under a 25-year contract awarded in 2021, Cellnex has worked with Network Rail to design, plan, and build this shared access infrastructure, making it accessible to all UK mobile network operators. Once fully activated, the shared infrastructure is expected to provide high-speed connectivity to 99% of the 108-kilometer route, significantly reducing the historical blackspots caused by deep cuttings, long tunnels, and Victorian-era station infrastructure that have long plagued the route, ensuring passengers enjoy reliable calls, uninterrupted streaming, and stable application performance throughout their journey.
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