Commuters wanting to send the inevitable text message telling their office that their tube is held once again at a red signal will have the chance to finally do so by 2012 – if the plan to roll out widespread Wi-Fi throughout the London Underground is successful.

London Mayor Boris Johnson’s boast of May 2010 that “every every lamp post [and] every bus stop will, one day very soon, be Wi-Fi enabled” preceded October’s attempt to match what has already been established in Berlin, Tokyo and Singapore: BT’s Wi-Fi hotspots for London Underground users were tested at Charing Cross, and in a strangely serviceable event, users of the Bakerloo and Northern platforms, as well as those in the main ticket hall, were able to connect to open-access Wi-Fi.

Deemed “successful” by Transport for London, telecom companies are now being invited to place a bid for a contract to supply a widespread area of Wi-Fi hotspots to a number of Underground stations – 120, to be exact. The winner, to be announced in the closing months of 2011, will be awarded with the task of establishing these hotspots before a set date. The date itself? June 2012 – to coincide with the opening of the Olympic Games.

While both TfL and Johnson have expressed positive feelings about the move, the Wi-Fi access will be originally designed to work on the platforms, rather than the trains themselves – meaning that commuters may still have to make do with playing Angry Birds while stuck behind those red signals for a while yet.

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