Vodafone improves phone coverage on Virgin trains

Vodafone UK is installing repeater technology to improve mobile phone coverage on Virgin’s high speed Pendolino trains, which run between London and Glasgow.

The technology retransmits 2G and 3G within carriages and has already increased the number of calls completed without interruption by 60%. Installation will be completed by November 2008.

Vodafone has also released new research which found that over 70% of all workers discuss business matters on their mobile phones in public places, sometimes even discussing business critical and confidential information.

Vodafone warns that companies should advise employees to be more discreet and use more confidential forms of communication, such as email, to discuss sensitive issues - 26% of workers questioned by Vodafone admitted to following up a lead they overheard from someone else’s telephone conversation.

Vodafone’s survey also found that people are indiscreet about their own lives, and those of their friends, when talking on their phone in public, with topics such as health, careers and even love lives being openly discussed.

Vodafone’s research is based on a survey of 2,053 mobile phone users, including 666 business users, by TNS during February 2008.