The Examiner reports again this morning on one of Metro’s longest running teases: that some day, a contract could be awarded to build a wireless network inside Metro’s tunnels and stations that would allow cell phone customers who don’t use Verizon to use their phones as well. Metro first started talking about awarding such a contract two years ago, but nothing happened, and then last summer there was some more chatter, but still nothing. This latest round of mobile network titillation does sound slightly more promising, however, as it’s linked to General Manager John Catoe’s plans to modernize stations, platforms and trains by adding things like flat screen monitors.

WMATA has now put out an official call for proposals from companies interested in building the network — which would reportedly take 18 months to get up and running in the busiest stations and closer to four years to complete in the entire system.

In the meantime, the Examiner story quotes concerned members of the Riders Advisory Council who are asking Metro to develop an ad campaign reminding riders to be considerate of others when using a cell phone on a train. Given the popularity of some of Metro’s previous ad campaigns that tried to teach us all some manners, that sounds like a good idea to us. New York’s Long Island Railroad’s “Don’t be Cell-fish” campaign is one place Metro could look as an example, though we rather hope we can come up with a more clever new vocabulary word than that for WMATA. Or maybe the blunt approach would be better? Posters reading something like, “Please shut the hell up, because no one else wants to hear about what you’re having for dinner”, might be more effective.