Caroline Errico for WSN
Soon descending into subway stations will no longer mean having to say goodbye.
The MTA announced earlier this month that it has partnerned with Transit Wireless and will begin providing cellular and Wi-Fi services to riders in subway stations.
The service is currently in a pilot stage and has been implemented in six stations along the 14th Street corridor. Locations include the Union Square, Eighth, 14th and Sixth, Seventh and 23rd and Eighth street subway stations. The pilot program is expected to be completed by next year, when the MTA will determine whether to continue it.
T-Mobile and AT&T have already signed 10-year contracts with Transit Wireless as part of this project. There has been no word whether Verizon, however, the provider with the greatest number of subscribers in New York City, will be a part of Transit Wireless' plan. The project is estimated to cost the company nearly $200 million as well as $46 million in fees to the MTA to run the program.
While the service is intended for the stations themselves, MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz expects that some signals will also reach into the tunnels, meaning that subway users may have access to wireless and phone services in subway cars. He added that construction is not expected to interfere with the subways.
The MTA hopes that all stations will be able to provide the service within four years, and Ortiz said this was a crucial project for the MTA.
"[MTA] chairman [Jay Walder] has been really clear that we need to be able to provide better service and better technology to our customers," he said. "We can't use the financial crisis or economic downturn to not move the system forward by providing better technology."
MTA and Transit Wireless initially hoped to begin construction in 2007, but due to financial problems, the project was put on hold.
"The economic downturn essentially resulted in reduced capital availability for these types of wireless projects," Ortiz said.
The new wireless developments by the MTA have already been implemented in other states. According Lisa Farbstein, spokesperson for the Washington, D.C., Metro, the city's public transportation wireless phone service was expanded earlier last year.
Farbstein said the service has been met with positive public reactions.
"There have been no complications that have come to my attention," she said.
Graduate student of Arts and Science Yi Fang called the service a "necessity."
"Subway stations are the only places you can't access your phone in New York nowadays and being connected at all times is important," Fang said.
