The Lighter Side of Wireless Blackout

Subway platforms and cars are for those awkward stares, the folded arms, the short naps, reading our books, doing our homework.   Most people have the subway etiquette down to a T. Eight years ago, Transit Wireless, a wireless telecommunication service, began on a project to provide Wi-Fi and cell phone service to 270 New York City subway stations. The company’s responsibility is to own and operate the wireless communications network and be a neutral host for extending different wireless carrier services to New York City subways. But because the company had difficulty finding financial backers for the project, as well as technical and engineering obstacles, Transit Wireless put it off. In 2007, they tried again. Transit Wireless signed a contract with the New York City Transit (NYCT) to begin a trial in downtown Manhattan by 2009; once again due to financial issues they delayed it.  In 2010 the wireless company that is an expert in underground wireless networks, Broadcast Australia, joined forces with Transit Wireless. Then in May 2012, Boingo Wireless, another wireless company and neutral host, announced an agreement with Transit Wireless to manage and operate Wi-Fi for people that are Boingo users. Since these companies have merged the $200 million project is back on.

I feel that this new crave for Wi-Fi and cell phone service underground is unnecessary. It will be like torture, hearing everyone on the platform chatting away on their cell phones, their voices reverberating down the subway tunnels. William Bayne, CEO of Transit Wireless, thinks that cell phone service on subway platforms will promote the, “If you see something you say something,” attitude. But really if your head is permanently down staring into your electronic device aren’t you just ignoring the real world even more? I understand that having access to the outside world when underground is important.  Checking emails, making calls, emergencies happening.  But I do not think that cell phone service and Wi-Fi on subway platforms promote awareness, I think this encourages people to be further unaware. Let’s be real, we aren’t all going to be writing emails, or reading the news, most of us will be treating our obsessions with social networking. We no longer make that awkward eye contact, or fold our arms, or read our books. Instead this service will encourages us to ignore each other’s existence.

Besides the MTA being in financial debt and talk of raising Metro cards to $3 per ride, or how according to the Wall Street Journal there were more than 26,000 cases of electronic theft in the first 10 months of 2011, my interest is the conversation about why we cannot be without cell phone service or internet access for our daily 20 minute subway ride?

The subway is a place of escape; it is a temporary sanctuary from reality. Why has such a place become polluted with the outside world?  Soon enough we will be walking up the subway stairs towards the crowded New York streets.

Transit Wireless is currently having its first trial of providing cell phone service and Wi-Fi. The service is limited to six subway stations and the trial will run until September 7.  Bayne’s goal is to have all 270 subway stations “light up in four years.”  His next move, if all goes well, is to move onto the $500 million to $1 billion project of bringing coverage to all subway tunnels as well, but he is just going to take this one step at a time.