Despite the technology being available now to allow people to pick up mobile phone reception whilst using the tube, it looks like the London Underground is set to remain a mobile free zone for the foreseeable future.

The news comes after TfL (Transport for London), which had been thinking about the possibility of such a scheme since 2005, carried out a two year research programme; it had been hoped that this would result in a six-month trial of an underground mobile phone system on the Waterloo and City line. However, TfL has just stated that despite its hopes for the system to get the go ahead, it has now turned out not to be “commercially viable”.

The news has brought mixed responses. Some have complained that seeing as the technology already exists, it is denying people, and especially commuters who rely on the Underground, access to their mobiles. However, others have said it is great news as it will keep the Underground free from the eponymous mobile chatter that seems to follow us everywhere these days.

O2 currently has a system in place in Glasgow that allows people to make calls on their mobiles as normal from the metro system. But TfL were keen to point out that the only reason for the decision was that the costs of a system would be too great.

A spokesman for TfL indicated that we could see a system arrive in the future if it was not too expensive, saying that “the market has yet to provide us with a credible proposal for enabling mobile phone use on the Tube.”