The announcement came yesterday that the NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority has made a deal to bring wireless phone services to 277 of its underground stations. The picture above from the New York Times report of the announcement describes: When flooding hit the subways last month, many New York City riders were frustrated in their attempts to use cellphones. The New York Times continues:
All 277 underground stations in the subway system are to be wired for cellphone use, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced yesterday.
But riders may have to talk fast, because the subway tunnels will not be wired, out of consideration for riders who do not want to be stuck in a subway car full of chattering cellphone users.
The company that won the right to wire the stations, Transit Wireless, will pay New York City Transit a minimum of $46.8 million over 10 years, the agency said. The company will also pay the full cost of building the wireless network in the underground stations, estimated at $150 million to $200 million.
Under the agreement, cellphone providers would pay the company a fee to carry their signals on the network.
The cellphone network will start in six downtown Manhattan stations in two years. Once it is shown to be working properly, Transit Wireless will have four more years to outfit the rest of the underground stations.
Comments
@ 16:00
Really ?
So, perhaps 500 cell phones on a train will have signal at a station, then they will all lose signal, and automatically boost their power to maximum as they attempt to connect with network. Then the 500 phones will all try simultaneously to connect with the micro-cell as they pull in to the next station, effectively overwhelming the network, probably for at least as long as it takes for the train to pull out of the station out of range of the cell transmitter again.
This supposedly cost saving systems design would be idiotic, and may appeal to accountants intent on saving money, but will simply not work with standard off the shelf mobile phone equipment.
Thankfully, the similar trials on the Waterloo & City line in London have recognised this Denial of Service attack problem, and the entire length of the tunnels will be wired for mobile phone reception.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/4577.aspx
@ 20:51
Would it be easier to fit the trains with the mirco-cellsites than the tunnels? Obviously the stations too.