BART Outfitted With Wireless

wyldeone writes "The San Fransico Chronicle reports that the BART subway system has been completely outfitted with cells to allow cellphone usage everywhere on the line. The network has been paid for entirely by Nextel, who leased out the lines to the other carriers." From the article: "Rae said BART and the wireless companies know some riders will try to make calls over the din as BART roars and screeches through tunnels. But most of the business, he said, will be from people using wireless devices to read and send e-mail or browse the Internet. 'You could use your Blackberry to take care of all your e-mail on your way to work,' he said. 'But the trains are really too noisy (underground) to have an intelligent conversation.'"

Comments

Not yet it hasn't

[Fletch]

...the BART subway system has been completely outfitted with cells to allow cellphone usage everywhere on the line.

Currently only 4 underground stations are wired. The same is planned for the other 10.

Re:Not yet it hasn't

[Spruitje]

Well, most subways like the one in Amsterdam, Paris and London are equipped with repeaters for GSM.
Nothing new.
And most cartunnels in the Netherlands also have GSM repeaters.

Re:Really that loud?

[goldseries]

Not true, it is easy to fall asleep on BART. It is not any noisier than a subway. We have cell phone conversations when above ground all the time and are annoyed when the train goes under. Also, will it just be the stations or the underground tubes (transbay, Caldecott, etc.) also?

Re:market share?

[DDLKermit007]

Well actually it's because Verizon is CDMA and almost everyone else is GSM. I bet they would have loved to have been able to lease out bandwith to others, but the tech just does not mix.

Zonk, your post kinda sucks

[Reality Master 201]

two things:

1. Actual geeks will find the title misleading. It's not wireless, it's cellular. There's a difference that your audience is going to make; wireless means 802.11, not cellular. I used to work for a company that specialized cellular data applications, and I immediately though wi-fi
2. Nextel HASN'T leased anything to anyone. From TFA: Nextel serves as the coordinator, planning, paying for and overseeing the work. Other carriers have the right to buy in and to strike agreements to reimburse Nextel and pay annual fees to BART. There's a big difference therebecause: at present, the only carrier is Nextel, and there's no mention that they've done any integration with another carrier yet. (Presumably it'll just be a tower sharing kind of arrangement).

As an aside, I wonder what kind of restrictions were placed in the contract in terms of sharing with other carriers. From what I hear, VZW has the cell towers in the DC metro, and doesn't allow other carriers to use them (maybe selfishness; maybe gross institutional incompetence on VZW's part - it's hard to tell with them). If it's a public place like a subway, the people who build the network should be required to lease out to other people; it's in the public interest that everyone get to play, not just the people with service from the carrier that gets the contract. Of course, if we'd just used a single wireless standard like in Europe, then the point would be moot.