Cell Phone Users Must Hold on Subway
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Plans to create a wireless network that would allow riders to use cell phones in subway stations may be dead in their tracks.
The chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, Peter Kalikow, said yesterday that he was “not sure” if the agency would complete a deal with one of the four service providers who have submitted bids for the project. “I would hope they’ll come back to use with a revised bid doing it the way we like,” Mr. Kalikow said following an Assembly oversight hearing on the MTA yesterday.
Since the MTA put out a request for proposals in August 2005, the sticking point with bidders has been whether to wire tunnels for cell phone service as well as stations.
The service providers want riders to make calls while in the tunnels. The MTA has remained adamantly opposed to chatting in transit.
“The position is customer comfort,” Mr. Kalikow said.”Can you imagine 50, 60, or 70 people having a phone conversation?”
Cell phone service providers bidding on the project say wiring stations and not tunnels is cost-ineffective. Phone conversations on subway platforms are too short to bring in any real money.
The cash cow would be the long subway ride that allows for a more substantial use of cell phone minutes.
“Negotiations are still continuing,” a spokeswoman for Cingular Wireless, Ellen Weber, said in response to Mr. Kalikow’s comments yesterday. Cingular Wireless is the lead service provider in a collective bid that includes Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile.
Jeffrey Just, the president of a company that was part of a competing bid, Dianet Communications, refused to comment on the situation because the request for proposals remains open.
“Bids were submitted and discussions began about the bids. We are still actively involved in discussions,” a spokesman for the MTA, Tom Kelly, said.