3G in the Eurostar

The Eurostar in Paris

3G has made it into the digital world

Eurostar track in Britain

University in Stoke on Trent

I am on the move again, this time on my way to Britain with the Eurostar from Paris to London. On the French side, EDGE coverage was quite good (I have no UMTS subscription in France, I can only use the EDGE) and I managed to get most of my work done and eMails out before we even got to the channel tunnel. No coverage in the tunnel, so 20 minutes of rest 🙂 On the other side of the tunnel, UMTS coverage by Orange was quite fantastic. I didn’t see a single network loss. Looks like they must have installed dedicated UMTS coverage for the Eurostar Railway track. Well done Orange!

The coverage from London to Stoke on Trent on the Virgin train was somewhat more patchy, so certainly no dedicated coverage on that track. However, there was 3G coverage in many places during the trip so looks like the UMTS coverage in the U.K. is quite advanced compared to France. Also good UMTS coverage in Stoke by several network operators.