Report: Channel Tunnel Set for Mobile Phones under the Sea

Passengers in the Channel Tunnel linking Britain and continental Europe will soon be able to use their mobile phones in the undersea rail link, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The Daily Telegraph said a French technology group had sorted out a way of connecting the tunnel with mobile phone networks.

The system is to go live in July, in time for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

A spokesman for Eurotunnel, which manages and operates the tunnel, could not confirm the report, but did confirm that the idea was being looked at.

"Customers demand mobile telephones wherever you go these days," he told Agence France Presse.

"So we want to make sure that we provide as many good services as any other travel organizations. We are looking at that right now."

Opened in 1994, the Channel Tunnel is the longest undersea tunnel in the world, linking Folkestone on the southeast English coast to Calais in northeastern France.

The three tunnels are 50.5 kilometers (31.4 miles) long, of which 37.9 km (23.5 miles) run under the English Channel.

Eurotunnel runs a shuttle service for vehicles, while Eurostar operates high-speed passenger services linking London with Paris and Brussels.