Free Wi-Fi from Virgin at 80 Tube stations during Olympics

Free Wi-Fi will be beaming through 80 London Underground stations during the Olympics in July and August, at no cost to you or your Oyster card, thanks to Virgin Media.

Olympic tourists will be able to alleviate the boredom of being crammed into a dirty tunnel, waiting up to half an hour for a Tube train at some stations, by surfing the web and playing Draw Something.

A further 40 stations will be Internet-ready by the end of the year, but after the end of the Paralympic Games in early September, you'll have to be a Virgin Media customer to use the full Internet. Other passengers will be able to access TfL's live travel information, but nothing else.

A spokesperson for Virgin Media said the free service will launch ahead of the Games' opening ceremony and last for the duration of both Olympics and Paralympics, but couldn't give specific dates.

Mayor Boris Johnson, London's biggest tousle-haired wiff-waff wibbler, boasted: "This is a fabulous new and free resource which will be in place from this summer when London is being showcased on a global stage and playing host to millions."

"We're upgrading the Tube to make it fit for the 21st century," said Gareth Powell, London Underground's director of strategy and service development. "This latest innovation is great news for Tube customers, who now have access to emails, web and social media underground for the first time."

Free Wi-Fi has long been an elusive and oft-promised dream for commuters in London and all over the country. The deal announced today was promised in March last year, although no one said anything about it becoming exclusive after the Olympics. In August, the Mayor's digital chief Kulveer Ranger pledged that free Wi-Fi -- again from Virgin -- was coming to the capital's buses, but the scheme seems to be mired in discussion with local councils.

Glasgow's subway has had free wireless since late 2010, while a plan to provide mobile phone coverage on the capital's Tube was banjaxed in 2009.

Are you looking forward to free Internets at your Tube station? Will you be avoiding the Underground like the plague for the duration of the Games? Or are you a Virgin customer from elsewhere in the country wondering why your subscription fees are being used for this? Let me know in the comments, or over on our completely free Facebook page.