Telecom giant Rogers has officially announced that 5G service is now available on portions of the TTC subway.

As of Wednesday, TTC riders can now talk, text, and stream with 5G service in select tunnels and stations.

Areas now covered by 5G service include all stations on the downtown U-shaped stretch of the Line 1 Yonge-University-Spadina, as well as 13 stations on the Line 2 Bloor-Danforth stretching from Keele to Castle Frank; along with the tunnels between St. George and Yonge stations.

While these changes primarily affect Rogers customers, the 5G network will now allow all riders to access 911 service in areas covered, regardless of their phone service provider.

Wednesday's announcement comes on the heels of news that passengers were already seeing cellphone reception in previously-offline subway tunnels and stations.

"Toronto is a world-class city and TTC riders deserve a transit system with world-class cellular service," said Tony Staffieri, President and CEO, of Rogers.

"That's why Rogers stepped up to do what's right for Toronto transit riders. We're working hard to modernize and expand the network so all riders can reliably access 911 and connect to 5G everywhere across the subway system, including underground. Today is an important milestone, and we're just getting started."

The initial 5G rollout is part of a phased network upgrade and expansion that will last a total of two years before fully operational.

Upgrades were announced following an agreement signed in April for Rogers to acquire BAI Communications' Canadian operations, the company which had held the exclusive rights to the TTC's wireless network since 2012.

In the months since this deal was inked, Rogers has been working hard to upgrade the TTC tunnels' mostly unused 3G and 4G networks to 5G, installing fibre, new radio equipment and more spectrum bands.

"TTC and Rogers staff worked hard to make this happen quickly and I look forward to the full build out being completed with all wireless carriers signing on to the network. Today's announcement is a significant milestone in Rogers' commitment to bringing modern, high-speed connectivity to the TTC subway system," said TTC CEO Rick Leary.

"Along with dialing 911, customers should remember that they should continue to push the Yellow Emergency Strip in case of an emergency on the subway system."