Mobile phone coverage in the Channel Tunnel is now available for Eurostar and Le Shuttle customers travelling between France and England. Coverage in the opposite direction - from England to France - is due to be launched by UK network operators later this year.

The northbound service has been introduced by Eurotunnel and French mobile network operators Bouygues Telecom, Orange and SFR. It uses a GSM-P optical fibre system for 2G and 3G connectivity with equipment developed by Alcatel-Lucent.

Vodafone is planning 12 new trials using femtocell technology to provide voice, text and mobile broadband coverage in ‘not spots’ across the UK.

It follows a trial in the Berkshire village of East Garston, where ‘open femto’ devices from Alcatel-Lucent have been installed in a handful of local properties. Further femtocells will soon be mounted on telegraph poles in partnership with BT Openreach.

Telecoms technology company Alcatel-Lucent has announced technical specifications for a new mobile network solution called lightRadio.

Instead of using conventional radio masts and base stations, lightRadio splits the base station into its component parts. These are then distributed into the antenna and throughout a cloud-like network.