Mobile Phone Service Arrives in NYC Subway as MTA Prepares 6-Station Test
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By Andrea Riquier and Esmé E. Deprez - Sep 22, 2011 4:19 PM ET

A New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority program that will offer
mobile-phone service at subway stations will be tested in six locations
starting Sept. 27, an agency official said.

Service will be available to AT&T Inc. (T) and T-Mobile USA Inc. users in
stations along 14th Street on the A/C/E, 1/2/3, and F/M lines; at Sixth
Avenue and Eighth Avenue on the L line; and at the 23rd Street C/E stop,
said an MTA official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about
the program. The newspaper amNewYork reported on the plan earlier today.

The program, authorized in 2007, will be run by Transit Wireless LLC
at no cost to the MTA. Transit Wireless, a closely held company formed
specifically for the MTA project, is providing the infrastructure and
service, and splitting the revenue 50-50 with the transit agency.

 “We want to eventually bring this service to all stations,” Aaron
 Donovan, an MTA spokesman, said by telephone. He said the agency also
 hopes to sign on additional wireless carriers.

Of the subway’s 468 stations, 191 are either elevated or at street
level. That will leave 271 stations to be wired for service after next
week’s debut.

AT&T and T-Mobile signed 10-year agreements with Transit Wireless
last year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Andrea Riquier in New
York at ariquier@bloomberg.net Esmé E. Deprez in New York at
edeprez@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at
mtannen@bloomberg.net.