What is Virgin Media WiFi on the London Underground?
Latest news for Virgin Media WiFi on London UndergroundIn conjunction with the London 2012 Olympic Games, Virgin Media and Transport for London launched free WiFi across dozens of London Underground stations.
We mapped the 80 tube stations where free WiFi went live before the Games kicked off, and the full list is here.
The service started at Oxford Circus, Stratford, Liverpool Street, Leicester Square and King’s Cross before moving out to other stations.
We’ve been tracking the progress of free WiFi on the London Underground, putting together our own map for people to download in PDF form and posting updates here regularly.
How much will Virgin Media WiFi on the London Underground cost?
Virgin Media WiFi on the London Underground will be free until the end of 2012.
From January 2013 onwards, Virgin Media, EE, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone customers will need to register their details with whoever provides their broadband or mobile phone services.
Virgin Media subscribers can register here, EE, Orange and T-Mobile punters can register here while Vodafone customers can do so here.
Everyone else will need to sign up for a daily (£2) weekly (£5) or monthly (£15) pass, which you’ll be prompted to do when you next connect to a WiFi hotspot.
Which London Underground stations have Virgin Media WiFi?
We’ve listed which stations currently have WiFi and which are due to get an upgrade both in the map above and below in a list.
The London Underground map remains the copyrighted property of Transport for London. A full list of the connected tube stations follows (you can download the London Underground WiFi map as a PDF here):
- Acton Town
- Aldgate East
- Angel
- Archway
- Arsenal
- Balham
- Baker Street
- Bank & Monument
- Barbican
- Bayswater
- Bermondsey
- Bethnal Green
- Blackhorse Road
- Borough
- Bounds Green
- Brixton
- Caledonian Road
- Camden Town
- Canada Water
- Canary Wharf
- Canning Town
- Chalk Farm
- Chancery Lane
- Charing Cross
- Clapham North
- Covent Garden
- Earl’s Court
- Edgware Road (Circle)
- Elephant & Castle
- Embankment
- Euston
- Euston Square
- Finsbury Park
- Goodge Street
- Green Park
- Hammersmith (District/Picc)
- Heathrow T1-3
- Heathrow T4
- Highbury & Islington
- Highgate
- High Street Kensington
- Holborn
- Holland Park
- Hyde Park Corner
- Kentish Town
- Kings Cross/St Pancras
- Ladbroke Grove
- Lambeth North
- Lancaster Gate
- Leicester Square
- Liverpool Street
- London Bridge
- Maida Vale
- Manor House
- Mansion House
- Marble Arch
- Marylebone
- Mile End
- North Greenwich
- Old Street
- Oval
- Oxford Circus
- Paddington (Main)
- Piccadilly Circus
- Pimlico
- Queen’s Park
- Queensway
- Regents Park
- Seven Sisters
- Shepherd’s Bush (Central Line)
- Sloane Square
- Southfields
- South Kensington
- Southwark
- St James Park
- St Johns Wood
- St Paul’s
- Stepney Green
- Stockwell
- Stratford
- Swiss Cottage
- Temple
- Tottenham Hale
- Tower Hill
- Tufnell Park
- Vauxhall
- Victoria
- Walthamstow Central
- Warren Street
- Warwick Avenue
- Waterloo
- Wembley Central
- Wembley Park
- West Ham
- West Ruislip
- Westminster
- Wimbledon Park
Where else can I get WiFi in London?
Elsewhere, The Cloud, owned by Sky, is working to provide WiFi at stations on the London Overground Network, and we can only hope that when they’ve finished, someone notices that there’s a lot of the UK outside the M25 as well.
O2 also runs an extensive WiFi network piping WiFi into venues such as Costa and McDonalds (of which there are a few in London) as well as Debenhams, Metro Professionals and other high street venues. O2 also offers free public WiFi in the Chelsea, Kensington and Westminster areas of London.
BT’s many BT Wi-fi (aka BT Openzone) hotspots are available in locations across the capital and in high street venues including Starbucks.
Latest news for Virgin Media WiFi on London Underground
- O2 WiFi hops on Virgin Media London Underground network 11 days early
- O2 customers arriving on Virgin Media London Underground WiFi network July 22
- Virgin Tube WiFi hits 120 stations as O2 users get a free ride
- Free WiFi for all ends, 11 more stations added
- Free WiFi ends on January 29
- 92 stations now have WiFi as Camden Town and South Ken come online
- Register for free WiFi now, or pay the price
- Virgin Media to add 48 new stations by 2013
- EE to offer Free WiFi in 2013
- Virgin London Underground WiFi free to end of 2012
- Two weeks left for Virgin’s free London Underground WiFi
Free WiFi for all ends, 11 more stations added
We knew that the end of the line was fast approaching and now we’ve reached it – Virgin Media will no longer be providing free WiFi to everyone who hops on the London Underground at selected stations.
From today, free access to the subterranean WiFi network will only be available to Virgin Media, EE and Vodafone customers.
Everyone else who still wants to connect to the network when they’re stuck in the 5:30 Oxford Circus melee will need to sign up for daily, weekly or monthly pass; these are charged at £2, £5 and £15 respectively.
As well as this, Virgin Media has installed WiFi in 11 more stations, bringing the total number of London tube stations with WiFi to 103.
- Blackhorse Road
- Gloucester Road
- Great Portland Street
- Hampstead
- Hammersmith (District & Piccadilly)
- Highbury & Islington
- Kentish Town
- Redbridge
- South Wimbledon
- Tooting Bec
- Tooting Broadway
A total of 120 stations are due to be connected by the end of March this year.
January 29, 2013
Free WiFi ends on January 29
Londoners’ free Underground broadband ride comes to an end next Tuesday, from when Virgin and TfL have decided you’ll have to pay if you’re not a Virgin, EE or Vodafone user.
Other users will have to register so they can buy a free daily, weekly, or monthly WiFi Pass – spending £2/day for a few minutes of connections as you pass through stations on your journey.
As we noted in December, the free connection for EE customers includes Orange and T-Mobile, while Vodafone customers must have a data plan in their contract if they want to get Virgin Media WiFi beyond November 2013.
January 25, 2013
92 stations now have WiFi as Camden Town and South Ken come online
Virgin Media has announced that 20 more stations have been connected to its WiFi network, bringing the total number of London Underground stations with WiFi to 92.
These stations are the 20 that were announced back in November and are as follows:
Belsize Park, Notting Hill Gate, Camden Town, Seven Sisters, Chalk Farm, South Kensington, Highgate, Swiss Cottage, Mornington Crescent, Bounds Green, Balham, Finsbury Park, Clapham Common, Holloway Road, Oval, Russell Square, Clapham South, Turnpike Lane, Lancaster Gate, Wood Green.
A further 28 stations are to be added in the new year, bringing the total number of stations up to 120.
In the new year Virgin Media, EE and Vodafone customers will continue to get free WiFi so long as they register first. Everyone else will need to shell out for a daily, weekly or monthly pass.
December 11, 2012
Register for free WiFi now, or pay the price
Attention Virgin Media, EE, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone customers – if you want to carry on getting free WiFi on the London Underground then you’ll need to register with your ISP or network.
From January onwards you’ll need to have your details logged if you want to carry on tweeting on the tube for free between stations.
Virgin Media subscribers can register here, EE, Orange and T-Mobile customers can register here while Vodafone peeps should click here.
For everyone else, O2 or Three customers, you’ll need to shell out for a Virgin Media WiFi pass. The rates for these are as follows:
- Daily Pass: £2
- Weekly Pass: £5
- Monthly Pass: £15
You’ll be asked to select one of these three passes and enter payment details the next time you connect to Virgin Media WiFi on the tube.
We’ve also noted that Vodafone Pay Monthly and Business customers who don’t have a data plan included in their contract are only eligible to use Virgin Media WiFi on the tube ‘til the end of November 2013 at no extra charge.
Of course by then you’ve got plenty of time to switch to a contract with built-in data so it’s not the end of the world.
Virgin Media WiFi is currently available at 80 stations (check out the map below) and will be coming to an additional 20 by the end of the year.
December 10, 2012
Virgin Media to add 48 new stations by 2013
With the cat all but out out the bag, Virgin Media has now gone and confirmed that EE and Vodafone have signed up to use its London Underground WiFi network, meaning EE and Vodafone customers can freely access WiFi on the tube.
As well as this Virgin Media has confirmed that 48 new stations will be getting WiFi by spring 2013, with 20 of those due to come online in December this year.
From January the network will be free to Virgin Media, Vodafone, EE, Orange and T-Mobile customers, with daily, weekly and monthly pay-as-you-go rates from £2/day.
The next 20 stations to be added are:
- Balham
- Belsize Park
- Bounds Green
- Camden Town
- Chalk Farm
- Clapham Common
- Finsbury Park
- Hampstead
- Holloway Road
- Highgate
- Lancaster Gate
- Mornington Crescent
- Notting Hill Gate
- Oval
- Russell Square
- Seven Sisters
- South Kensington
- Turnpike Lane
- Wood Green
Locations of the next 28 have yet to be announced; we’ll update as soon as we know where the WiFi’s coming next.
Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media said: “WiFi on London Underground has been an incredible success with over 700,000 people already online and a remarkable million sessions every day. We’re rolling out the service to reach even more stations throughout London, from Camden Town to Clapham Common and, thanks to our partnership with EE and Vodafone, the majority of Tube users can stay connected for no extra cost.”
November 21, 2012
EE to offer Free WiFi in 2013 – or is it?
EE has announced via its Facebook page that it’s going to be offering free WiFi on the London Underground from 2013.
Details are very thin on the ground right now – we’re not sure if this means EE has entered into an agreement with Virgin Media or it’s taking over the entire WiFi network that Virgin set up.
We knew that Virgin Media was entertaining the idea of renting out its WiFi network to other ISPs and mobile operators so it’s most likely the former.
It’s perhaps worth noting that Virgin Media’s mobile network uses the Orange/T-Mobile signal, so it’s easy to see how a deal could be worked out whereby EE customers can get free access to the same WiFi as Virgin Media customers.
We’ve contacted both EE and Virgin Media and are waiting to hear back.
Update 1: We’ve just heard back from Virgin Media who declined to comment.
Update 2: An EE spokesperson just got in touch to tell us “we’re always looking at ways to improve the service we offer our customers. However, we have nothing to announce at this time.”
We’ve also noticed that the EE Facebook post from this morning has disappeared – we understand that it was posted in error and has now been removed. Looks like a deal was being discussed and was in the planning stages and someone on the PR team was a little trigger happy with the ‘post to social networks’ button.
Update 3: Virgin Media has now officially confirmed that EE customers will be able to get free tube WiFi in 2013.
November 21, 2012
Virgin London Underground WiFi free to end of 2012
Virgin has extended its free WiFi service at London Underground stations until the end of 2012, with more stations coming online throughout the year.
TfL and Virgin Media are working towards a target of 120 connected stations, although not all of those will be reached by the end of 2012.
The service is now delivering more than a million connections per day to 661,000 people, with with Waterloo, Victoria, King’s Cross, and Oxford Circus the busiest locations.
Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, said: “Commuters and visitors will be able to make use of the internet throughout 2012 and we’re in positive talks with potential wholesale partners to ensure a fantastic experience for all Tube passengers throughout 2012 and beyond.”
TfL has also produced its official WiFi on the London Underground map, no doubt inspired by the original Recombu WiFi on the London Underground map produced in June.
October 17, 2012
Two weeks left for Virgin’s free London Underground WiFi
There’s just two weeks left of free WiFi for everyone using the London Underground. Virgin Media has told us that the prices for access to its tube-based WiFi network will come into effect ‘at the end of September’ as planned.
When Virgin Media launched its ambitious underground WiFi network earlier this year, we were told that by the end of the London 2012 Olympic Games we’d have WiFi in close to 80 stations, and 120 by the end of the year.
At the last count 72 stations are now flush with WiFi which helped deliver over eight million tweets during the Games.
We were also told that after the games access to Virgin Media’s tube network would remain free for Virgin customers but everyone else would have to cough up. While we’re still waiting on exactly how much BT, Sky, O2 customers and the rest will have to pay, this serves as a reminder that we’ve got two weeks of free WiFi use left; check out our handy tube map below showing where WiFi will be coming which you can download in PDF form.
September 17, 2012
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