New stretch of Prague metro’s A line to get mobile phone signal

People travelling along the new stretch of Prague metro’s A line will no longer have to restrict their phone conversations to individual stations. Three mobile phone operators have signed a contract with the Prague transport authority on providing a signal along the whole stretch of the newly opened line from Bořislavka to Motol Hospital.

Photo: Filip Jandourek

The pilot project should give passengers the luxury of making calls and using LTE internet along the entire length of the recently opened stretch of the A line linking the stations Bořislavka, Veleslavín, Petřiny and Motol Hospital. Work on wiring up the tunnels has been underway since the contract between T-mobile, Vodafone, 02 and Prague City Transport was signed at the end of June and should be concluded by the end of the year.

The project is being financed by the mobile phone operators and they will also pay the Prague transport authority an as yet unspecified sum in annual rent. The sum will reportedly be set after the six-month trial run. Prague City Hall has given the project the green light but is not contributing to it. If all goes according to plan the next stretch to get a mobile signal would be one of the busiest sections from Museum to Roztyly sometime in the second half of next year.

Whether passengers on Prague’s metro can look forward to an uninterrupted mobile signal along the full stretch of all three lines remains an open question. Operators want to test the profitability of the project along the new stretch of the A-line for six months before making a decision on its further extension. According to T-mobile spokeswoman Patricie Šedivá the service from Bořislavka to Motol Hospital will amount to around 35 million crowns. Covering the whole stretch of Prague’s metro would be well over half a billion crowns.