WMATA installing wireless service in 20 Metrorail stations

Written by jrood

Metrorail riders in the Washington, D.C., area soon will be able to use four major cell phone providers to make calls or access the Internet from 20 of Metro's busiest underground stations. 

Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, AT&T and T-Mobile began installing hardware at designated Metrorail stations that will allow Metrorail customers to make calls, send text messages or surf the Web from 20 stations starting Friday, October 16. 



During the next two months,
the companies will install a wireless network at the following Metrorail
stations: Ballston, Bethesda, Columbia Heights, Crystal City, Dupont Circle,
Farragut North, Farragut West, Federal Center SW, Foggy Bottom-GWU, Friendship
Heights, Gallery Pl-Chinatown, Judiciary Square, L’Enfant Plaza, McPherson
Square, Metro Center, Pentagon, Pentagon City, Rosslyn, Smithsonian and Union
Station.

Customers at those stations
will begin to see large, cabinet-like enclosures that will house the hardware
at the ends of station platforms or on mezzanines, in areas that will not
impede the flow of customers or impact the safe operation of the Metrorail
system. New cables and antennae also will be installed as part of this work,
which will take place late at night when the Metrorail system is closed.



"This is the first phase
of Metro’s effort to bring expanded cell phone carrier service to the entire
Metrorail system by 2012," said Suzanne Peck, Metro’s Chief Information
Officer. "After we complete the first 20 stations this fall, the carriers will
install service at the remaining 27 underground stations by the fall of 2010.
Customers will be able to use these carrier-provided wireless services in
tunnels between stations by October 2012."



Riders can now receive
cell phone service from multiple providers at above ground stations, but the
current underground wireless network only supports Verizon customers and Sprint
phones that roam onto the Verizon network. In 1993, Metro agreed to allow Bell
Atlantic Mobile Systems, which later became Verizon Wireless, to build and
maintain the current wireless network. In exchange, Verizon built a public
safety radio communications system for Metro. Verizon also pays annual fees to
Metro. 



Verizon Wireless, Sprint
Nextel, AT&T and T-Mobile will build, operate, maintain and own the new
wireless network that is currently being installed. The firms also will build a
second wireless network, which Metro will own, operate and maintain for Metro’s
own public safety and operational communications. The second network will
support future plans to launch The Metro Channel, which will provide riders
with rail and bus service information, news and advertising via monitors in
stations, trains and buses. 

The wireless contract will generate a minimum of
nearly $25 million during the initial 15-year term and an additional $27
million during the five, two-year renewal terms.

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