Last year, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, revealed he wants in time for the Olympics in 2012. Hitting this target may prove difficult, as no trials of the service have even taken place yet. In 2009, TfL that would have seen mobile signal available on the Waterloo & City line due to high costs.

However, commuters at Charing Cross have been given a in the ticket hall and platforms at the underground station in a six-month scheme, which is taking place in conjunction with . Huawei's equipment is already being used in this trial.

Richard Thurston, an analyst with Ovum, welcomed the news.

"Finally there is progress on these much-delayed plans to mobile-enable the London Underground. The project has been delayed for years because of revenue sharing, infrastructure sharing and installation challenges. Most of those challenges remain, and we expect this project will continue to prove troublesome. It is unlikely that the underground portions of the mobile network will all be fully operational by 2012," he said.

However, Thurston said the contract "is certainly no gift from China".