London Gatwick Airport has partnered with Vodafone to install 300 new mobile antennas and 46km (29 miles) of fiber-optic cable across its terminals, providing travelers with better signal strength and download speeds of up to 200MB per second – the fastest Vodafone 4G speeds of any UK airport.
Airport staff and on-site businesses will also benefit from improved coverage and a more reliable mobile service from Vodafone. Customers can now stream online videos to entertain the children in departures, check their bank balance online in duty free shopping, or speak with business contacts while waiting for their flight.
During July this year alone, customers traveling through the airport used enough data to download more than three million music tracks. Further improvements to coverage throughout the airport will continue to be made during the next few months.
Cathal Corcoran, chief information officer, Gatwick Airport, said, “Vodafone’s advanced 4G network is making it easier and faster for passengers to surf the web, use apps, watch videos or make internet calls. The majority of the 250 companies based on the Gatwick campus also benefit from this superfast 4G service, including those that rely heavily on mobile applications for their day-to-day business.”
Jorge Fernandes, chief technology officer, Vodafone UK, said, “Gatwick Airport had the foresight to invite us in at an early stage of their major development work so that we could install an integrated mobile network to match its world-class facilities while minimizing any disruption to passengers and employees. Our latest improvements will ensure all our customers using Gatwick can rely on us to stay connected from the minute they can switch on their mobile devices.”
