Photo by lorigoldbergVerizon Wireless customers in Washington are soon going to have precious little left to brag about to their friends with other cell phone companies. Metro today released the first part of its schedule for installing expanded wireless service in the system’s underground stations and tunnels. The new wireless network, the first phase of which will be completed by mid-October, will be able to be accessed by people who subscribe to any of the four major cell phone companies.
The first step will involve installing broader cell phone service, which will work for Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, AT&T and T-Mobile customers, in the 20 busiest underground Metro stations. That work actually begins this weekend, and is expected to be up and running by Friday, October 16 (and that date should hold more or less firm, since WMATA is attempting to comply with a deadline imposed by Congress on this one). The following stations will get cell phone service first: 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.
The next phase will be to install service at the remaining 27 underground stations, which will take another year to complete. Following that, work will move inside Metro’s tunnels, with the whole system expected to be wired by October 2012.
The wireless companies will also be building a second network for Metro at the same time, which unlike the one for cell phone customers, will be owned and operated by Metro for the agency’s own public safety and operational communications. That second network will also provide the means for the launch of The Metro Channel, the video screen-based information feed for Metro passengers envisioned by John Catoe.
