(Photo by AZY_NYC / Flickr)
(New York, NY – WNYC) WiFi is coming to NYC subway platforms, but not for another four years — and there will be no connectivity in tunnels.
The subway station project was delayed for nearly three years while Transit Wireless, the company chosen to set up the system at no cost to the NY MTA, got its financing in order. The authority’s board selected the company in 2007 but didn’t give it a “notice to proceed” until Broadcast Australia decided to back the company in July 2010.
New York City straphangers are of two minds about the lack of WiFi and cell phone service in the subway. They see it as either a galling void or a sanctuary from modern life’s near-constant connectivity.
There’s something for both sides in the NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s current project to bring the internet and phone use underground. For those who want the service because it’ll help emergency responders communicate and help riders use transit apps on their mobile devices–or because they absolutely MUST check their emails or headlines–they’ll have it at three stations by the end of the year.
For those who don’t want to hear a stranger discuss his grocery list at high volume, it’ll be a full four years before the system’s remaining 271 platforms are wirelessly enabled.
First to see the service will be the platforms, stairs and mezzanines of the 14th Street stations at 8th and 6th Avenues and the 23rd Street C / E station in Manhattan.
Transit Wireless will charge telecom companies for use of the wireless signal and then split the profits with the MTA. The authority says it expects to earn at least $30 million dollars over ten years from the deal.
The NY MTA also says there will be WiFi and cell phone service in a non-subway tunnel — on its Metro-North commuter line between 97th Street and Grand Central Terminal, and in the terminal itself. The authority wouldn’t give a completion date for that project.
NY MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said the main benefit would be improved safety on platforms. “We send out real-time email, text message and Twitter alerts to our customers in the event of an emergency or other service disruption,” he said. “Having cell service in our underground platforms expands the reach and usefulness of those alerts.”