Johannesburg - From Friday, Gautrain commuters will be able to use certain mobile phone networks in underground stations.
Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport Ismail Vadi said progress has been made with regards to the Gautrain cellular project and that there would be mobile communication service – data and voice – coverage for Vodacom and MTN subscribers in the Gautrain underground sections at Sandton, Rosebank and Park stations.
“Some Gautrain commuters would have already started experiencing the benefit of this connectivity as of yesterday, even though the system is still in a testing phase until tomorrow,” he said.
Making these facilities available represents the first phase of a much broader engineering project which will see the installation of additional technical infrastructure that will extend across the entire Gautrain route.
The next step will be to allow for the improvement of voice and data coverage in the Gautrain tunnels and along the entire route.
Discussions are under way with the mobile network operators in this regard, but the department cannot put exact timelines on the roll-out, he said.
“Gautrain will continue striving to make better use of technology for the benefit of the commuters,” Vadi said.
The Star