Photo by lorigoldberg

Until a few years ago, unless you were a Verizon user D.C.’s Metro system was a cell phone dead zone. In late 2009, though, service was extended to non-Verizon users in the system’s 20 busiest stations, with plans for continued expansion of coverage as the years progressed.

That expansion fell behind schedule last year, though, and now the Examiner reports that it might not even happen by an October 2012 deadline:

Powerwave Technologies Inc. is helping Metro fulfill a pledge to Congress to install more robust wireless service in all of the transit system’s underground network by Oct. 16. But in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made earlier this month, the company based in Santa Ana, Calif., said it has experienced “significant recurring net losses and operating cash flow deficits” for the past year.

“These conditions raise substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern, and its success is dependent upon the successful outcome of its efforts to raise additional financing, restructure its operations, lower manufacturing costs and reduce operating expenses,” it said in the filing.

So far, the company has failed to bring cell phone service to 27 remaining stations as it promised, and 50.5 miles worth of tunnels also remain dead zones.