Phone service for Eurostar

Special installations will allow for mobile reception in the Channel Tunnel from July

EUROSTAR passengers will soon be able to get phone signals throughout their trips.

Eurotunnel is to sign an agreement tomorrow with France Télécom, SFR, Bouygues and Free, to instal 2G and 3G phone infrastructure in the Channel Tunnel.

The aim is for the service to be ready for July, just before the London Olympic Games.

The Industry Ministry said in a statement the service was being made possible “thanks to a French technology from the Alcatel-Lucent group”.

However commentators on the site of newspaper Le Monde took the news in a mainly negative light. “The only place where we were spared and now we’re going to be able to be annoyed there like everywhere else. Great,” said one disgruntled traveller.