September 20, 2007
Cellular, Wireless Service Headed to Subway Stations
Two years after asking various companies to bid to bring cellphone service to the subways, the MTA has finally picked a vendor to wire all stations. Here are the details:
- Transit Wireless will pay the MTA at least $4.6 million each year over 10 years; Transit Wireless is made up of four communications and constructions companies.
- Subway stations will be wired for cellular and wireless service. Subway tunnels will not be wired, which means cellphone use on subways will be limited to trying out ring tones very loudly.
- All 277 stations will eventually be wired over six years.
- This year, six subway stations will be wired during a two-year pilot program: 23rd Street and 14th Street on the Eighth Avenue line, 14th Street on the Seventh Avenue line, 14th Street on the Sixth Avenue line, and Eighth Avenue and Sixth Avenue on the L line.
- Transit Wireless will charge wireless carriers to use the lines - in other words, if your carrier isn't signed up, you won't be able to make calls from the underground.
Transit Wireless's total bid of $46 million beat out other bids, including one that was as low as $6.2 million. One unattractive part of the deal was that the vendors would foot all the bills for construction and installation, not the MTA. Big investment aside, the hope is that other cellular providers will pay big bucks to access to the system. A Transit Wireless partner, Gary Simpson, tells the Daily News, "There's need and a demand by riders and customers to use their cell phones down in the stations. Once customers are demanding it, the carriers will have to respond to that demand."
And Representative Anthony Weiner cracked to the Sun, "It took Alexander Graham Bell less time to invent the telephone than it takes to install service in the subway system...What they've decided to do is provide the Cadillac of service on six stations — my quibble is that we would should have had more stations getting emergency service quicker."
Photograph by Urch on Flickr
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so much for one of the last escape from having to listen to yentas talk about nothing.
but wait, i appreciate using "i must have been on the train" as an excuse for ignoring calls....
How are those chicks with the big sunglasses going to manage their cellphones while simultaneously holding 40-ounce cups of coffee?
Hahaha...yentas...
#2, you still can use that excuse. The plan is to bring reception to underground stations only, and not into the subway tunnels.
"ALL" 277 stations????
There are 468 stations in the subway system.
When the hell is Gothamist going to get an editor that knows NYC?
"Subway stations will be wired for cellular and wireless service. Subway tunnels will not be wired, which means cellphone use on subways will be limited to trying out ring tones very loudly."
hahahaha! *crying on the inside*
"How are those chicks with the big sunglasses going to manage their cellphones while simultaneously holding 40-ounce cups of coffee?"
The same way they can thumb through their jdate email on the blackberry, carry a 5 cubic foot handbag all while balancing their 5'2" frame on 4' heels.
New tourist activity: "Hi, [person]? You are never going to BELIEVE where I am calling from! Guess! No. No. No. The subway in New York!"
cellular terrorism is in our future. this is a very bad idea.
I wouldn't mind the platforms, but being trapped in those moving boxes with someone talking on the phone... please God, no. (Though we all know it'll be coming one of these days.) I take the 4 in the Bronx and believe me, when it goes above ground and people start whipping out their phones to talk as if they are alone in the Universe at the top of their lung capacity, I cringe.
And what's up with people playing their damned music so that everyone can hear it on the train? Arrggh!
Not all subway stations are underground. Elevated platforms don't need special wiring for cell service. Site editors probably take it for granted that people realize they're talking about underground stations.
In Tokyo, all the subways are hooked up, but it’s actually impolite to use your phone for anything other than texting. I would love for this etiquette to be the norm here, but like #10 alluded to: New Yorkers are a different breed.
Do you think there will be any incurred charges regardless if people actually use their phones on the subway? Ala: http://theinquirer.net/?article=42235&rfp=dta
Hogarty is a jerk. The rest of America has cell coverage in auto tunnels, subways, etc.
#5 *"ALL" 277 stations????*
If you use common sense, they're wiring 277 undergrond stations. The above ground ones, guess what? Don't need to be wired.
n00b
oh great! i just can't wait for all those annoying people that push in front of me when the subway comes to be talking very loudly on their cellphones while they do it!
#5:
The second link, a NYT article, states "277 underground stations" in the first part of the first sentence. Gothamist isn't wrong this time.
"In Tokyo, all the subways are hooked up, but it’s actually impolite to use your phone for anything other than texting. I would love for this etiquette to be the norm here, but like #10 alluded to: New Yorkers are a different breed."
Agree!!
I like the etiquette in Tokyo.But NYorkers are all but "polite" and lack good manners in all aspects.
It seems that all oportunities are best for insulting, shouting, poluting (stuff, noise, music), all that you can think about making sure you actually despise the "other".
#5 here: OK, OK you got me this time. I can't fault Jen for leaving out that only 277 stations are in fact underground.
My deepest apologies to our ample-chested Asian female editor.....
Maybe this will keep retarded New Yorkers from standing at the top of the subway entrances to finish their calls. No more dirty looks as if everyone else that needs to pass is the problem.
Okay, I guess it's cool that we'll be able to call in late or something if we're stuck on a delayed train, but if people think they're getting this new service for free they can think again. The big cell companies are going to take this and run with it - after they have to pay the Transit Wireless people to get the service, you'll start seeing a new fee in small print on your bill called "transit fee" or something like that. I, for one, would much rather keep my bill lower than be connected that much more than I already am.
That's an excellent choice of picture to go with this posting.
they should of gotten the tunnels too. blah they never really do what the people wants instead of always listen to the loudest minority groups who don't want folks to talk in the trains.
From a European perspective, having no cell phone service in the subway is one of the many things where New York (which I love btw), seems to be so much behind. I can't believe they are not even going to wire the tunnels now...
#9 - What makes terrorist acts more probable with service on subway platforms???
It may not be that bad. People don't talk too much on the elevated trains, so...
Ibrahim
www.BehindtheApprovalMatrix.com
If you need to make an important call, then don't get on the subway. It's that simple.
Currupt, filthy, falling apart, instulting to the people of NYC. That's what we have come to expect from the MTA. What makes anyone believe this is going to be a good thing. Millions of dollars leaking into the pockets of cronies, contractors, and politicians - years of service inturruption to wire the stations (count on that) - and for what? If they were able to do anything else right I might be convinced.
Emergency service is fine, but why is this needed? People should NOT be able to dial anything other than 911. MTA can't clean, paint or fix the tiles in 90% of the stations yet they are concerned about cell phone service. Ingrate neophytes.
Cell phones are pacifiers for adults.
edEx....
n00b???
And Hogarty is, sadly, dead on. People from the provinces act differently when they come to NYC.
If a private contractor is wiring the stations, there should be no problems meeting their deadlines. We could expect it to go 7 years late and billions over budget only if the MTA itself was performing the installation. Hello.
The last time I was in DC I was surprised when the cell phone rang in the tunnel. I sort of like not being able to be reached when below ground.
Now the phrase, "Under the agreement, cellphone providers would pay the company a fee to carry their signals on the network" sounds like roaming charges to me.
#24: cellular service has been used for years over and again as a timing device for bombs, deadly gas attacks and suicide missions.
Make a call safely from your hideout and KA-BOOM!
Read up on it, it's pretty popular overseas with the IRA, al Qeada, Hezzbollah etc... In fact the IDF uses it with Palestinian terrorists and the CIA has used it against soft targets as well...
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040315-cellphones-bombs.htm
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/01/72400
http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/04/cellphone-bomb-detonator
n00b is a term 11 year old gamers use when playing XBOX. Much like Pwned which EdEx got by MC.
Time's about come for me to invest in some cell phone jamming devices.
Notice that this announcement was made right before today's announcement by that the MTA failed in last month's flood:
http://billkosloskymd.typepad.com/wirelessdoc/2007/09/cellular-servic.html
I think we have to view cellular service on the platforms as a forced giveback. Hey, we can't guarantee that you won't be delayed when it rains, but at least you can call ahead.
The subway in Washington has service for certain carriers (verizon I believe). It's not overly annoying but people tend to talk louder because the train itself is loud.
it is illegal to talk on your mobile phone while driving because you can't pay attention to what is going on. why would it be advisable to use it on a crowded raised platform?