Passengers whisking through Beijing's subway tunnels and trying to ignore the pressures, smells, and sounds around them can now turn to fast Internet.
The Beijing Subway Information Development Co., Ltd. has signed agreements with China Mobile Beijing and China Unicom Beijing for 4G services on new subway lines. This will bring total 4G services to all of Beijing's underground mass transit.
Beijing Subway Information Development signed maintenance service contracts with China Mobile Beijing and China Unicom Beijing for several subway lines, including the second phase of Line 6, Line 7, the western section of Line 15, the second phase of Line 8, and the Airport Express. The contracts cover 83 new stations and all stations of above lines realize civilian communications system coverage. Financial terms of the agreements were not released.
Early in 2014, Beijing Subway started 4G mobile network development. On May 13, 2014, Line 9 and Line 4 became the first subway lines in China to have the full coverage of China Mobile 4G's signal.
In December 2015, the middle section of Line 14 and the second phase of Changping Line started trial operation. At that time, a representative from Beijing Major Projects Construction Headquarters Office revealed that in the future Beijing's new subway lines would realize 4G coverage; meanwhile, they would reserve space for 5G signals.