Countries In Asia Have The Best Tube Coverage

As a frequent worldwide traveler I find it quite annoying when I come to big cities (such as that hosting the next summer Olympics for example) and the tube system is lacking wireless network coverage. The issue is more prevalent in some countries than in others and now a recent study by the New Cities Foundation on where tube systems have coverage sheds some interesting details on this topic. According to their results South Korea and China have 100% network coverage in big city tube systems, followed closely by Japan with 87.5% and Asia as a whole with 84.4%. Europe is pretty much down in the list at 56% only trailed by a few such as the US where it is even worse. A result I would not have quite expected. I guess the message is clear: European and US cities beware, you are by far surpassed by your Asian competitors!

Comments

[Ed]

It is true. I started a call in my hotel in Shanghai, went out of hotel, walked to the metro, took the metro to work, emerged and walked to work without a single issue. Have not been able to do that in NYC or Paris. In Nuremberg, coverage is decent.

[David Boettger]

I suspect that the motivation to provide tube coverage is highly correlated with the rate plans. In China, each minute is chargeable, so it behooves the carriers to provide coverage in every conceivable location so as to soak up all offered traffic. In other locales (e.g., the USA), where minutes are typically sold in monthly bundles, the motivation is exactly the opposite: Carriers would prefer it if the subscriber didn't make *any* calls. So why bother putting coverage in the tube, which will do nothing but decrease operating profit margins?

In my experience, China has had the best coverage and overall service quality in the world for at least 10 years.