On Sep 12, 9:54*am, Roland Perry wrote:
In message
, at
16:08:34 on Sun, 11 Sep 2011, Mizter T remarked:

There isn't a technical problem with getting coverage into the tunnels,
the issue is that there are so many tunnels that the cost of providing a
public service (in addition to any existing private system) would be
prohibitive.


There are two options to this that I can think of.

(a) charge people to use it when in the underground, which is after
all what airlines do.
(b) use a combination of these charges, with funding from taxes,
sponsorship from a major company - think Barclays and the Boris Bikes,
or British Airways and the London Eye - perhaps some revenue from
paying a monthly membership fee to the scheme, and perhaps the
networks themselves would be willing to help pay something towards the
cost (after all, they will be gaining by people making calls on their
networks, ultimately).
(c) finally, you could also perhaps charge people for advertisements
callers would hear just before the call is connected. As anyone who
uses "access numbers" (eg for cheap calls abroad) will know, often
they only get these amazing rates if they are happy to listen to a
short recorded message first.

(c) is just off the top of my head. But the Boris Bikes has proven
that (b) would work, for sure.