35 New York City Subway Stations are now Verizon LTE Ready

Sometime around April of last year, we in New York City began to see wireless access in some of our subway platforms. At that time there were maybe six or seven stations that were up and ready to go. AT&T and T-Mobile were the two carriers to offer the service.

Yesterday, Verizon threw its hat into the ring. Verizon customers can now stay connected, well in at least 35 subway stations. Most of these stations are located on the west side between 23rd and 96th streets. Additional stations include Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Lincoln Center and Columbus Circle.

The two larger subway stations in NYC, Penn Station and Grand Central Station, are noticeably missing from the list of 35. I’m sure that they will be included in the next series of stations to go live, but it should be noted that these are the two stations that connect the Long Island Railroad and Amtrak to Manhattan. Word is that the next wave should include an additional 40 stations.

“At Verizon Wireless, we have a long track record of investing to provide customers the best possible service. Since 2000, we have invested more than $4.5 billion into our wireless network across the New York Metropolitan Region. The addition of Verizon Wireless voice and data services to these New York City subway stations will only further enhance our customers’ mobile experience.” These were the comments of Patrick Devlin. He is the regional president for Verizon Wireless.

Transit Wireless is an American telecommunication company found in 2005 and based in New York City. It specializes in building wireless communication infrastructure using distributed antenna system networks to provide Wi-Fi and cellular phone coverage in the places that are unreachable by traditional cellular phone services.

William A. Bayne Jr., who is CEO of Transit Wireless, said, “The build-out of the Transit Wireless network continues to progress on schedule, as we add additional carriers like Verizon Wireless and begin work on Phase Two of the project to bring service to 40 additional stations, including Grand Central Station in Manhattan, as well as all underground stations throughout Queens. Our network not only provides an important security improvement to riders, but also serves as the backbone for future innovations throughout the subway system.”

If you think that New Yorkers are getting spoiled by subway coverage, you should check out Korea. As a test, several years ago, Samsung and Korea Telecoms outfitted two subway cars from Seoul's number 2 line train with a dozen WiBro-enabled Samsung Q45 laptops and Q1 Ultra UMPCs.

This was called the “Sens e-train” and it offered riders a chance to have a high-speed connection while underground. Can you imagine that in New York? It is nice being able to receive email and text messages while riding the subway, but what I do not look forward to is people screaming in their phones trying to have a conversation in a noisy subway station or car.