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System Would Allow Use of All Cellphones
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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York reached an agreement last fall for all 277 underground stations to be wired for cellphone use. The company awarded the contract will pay New York City Transit a minimum of $46.8 million over 10 years, and pay the full cost of building the wireless network, estimated at $150 million to $200 million. Under the deal, the cellphone network would start in six downtown Manhattan stations next year, according to a spokesman for the company, Transit Wireless.
By comparison, Peck said Metro's annual revenue from a new contract with a wireless provider could range from $200,000 to $2 million. New York can earn more revenue because its system is larger, with an average weekday ridership of more than 5 million, compared with about 730,000 on Metro, Peck said.
Metro's contract with Verizon is not exclusive, and agency officials have sought proposals from other providers for networks that would give access to all cellphone users. One proposal was rejected, Peck said, because it did not provide for a single comprehensive network.
Having one comprehensive wireless network would solve some of Metro's other communications problems. The wireless network would be able to operate with any radio frequency, including the troubled $73 million radio system that Metro bought from Motorola. The system was bought eight years ago and was supposed to allow Metro Transit Police and train operators to communicate with central control but is still not fully operational in the underground stations and tunnels.
Whether riders want to hear all those cellphone conversations is another matter. In New York, officials chose not to wire subway tunnels out of consideration for riders who do not want to hear other people's conversations.
Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
