How NYC’s subway got wireless in the tunnels
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
> In addition to the smart city initiatives, Transit Wireless obviously is eyeing the tunnels as one of the most important infrastructure challenges going forward. Given the age of the tunnel construction, they are much narrower than the engineering standards used today for modern transit systems. In some cases, installed equipment has to fit within just a handful of inches of space lest a moving train rip the equipment right off the wall.
It reminds me of the Galápagos Syndrome (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal%C3%A1pagos_syndrome), where Japan pioneers some technologies, but they're often incompatible with the rest of the world because Japan itself is isolated (ATMs, mobile phones, etc.).
Edit: wrong about Paris! Thanks for correcting me :)
The cutover to digital signals circa 2001-2002 meant calls would drop as soon as the signal faded.
We get that even overground in the UK.
London still sucked hard the last time I checked - basically a bit of spotty wifi near the stations.
And we had to do it cooperatively with competitive carriers because of the lack of space in the tubes.
Crazy that Moscow's system is almost 100 years old, dating from 1935. (I just checked and London's Underground has it beat by a margin though - 1863)
That seems like a pretty hefty generalization.
> I am not sure if we even have subways elsewhere (which just may be my own ignorance showing).
Maybe you should visit nearby Boston, DC, or Philadelphia.
Have you ever seen a movie or TV show which depicted the Boston, DC or Philly metros?
Most New Yorkers you know will not have cars. Most people you know in Boston, DC or Philly will.
Anecdotal stories notwithstanding, New York is the only city in the country in which the outright majority of people don't own cars. (D.C. is a very distant second).
There are subways in other US cities, but nowhere near as extensive. One-third of all subway stations in the entire country are within New York City itself.
New York City has more subway stations than any other subway system in the world, and that's not counting the non-subway transit (commuter rail, PATH, etc.)
Nyc subway is unbeatable in that regard. And I prefer 24/7 service than being able to use the wifi to book an uber ;)
The pride that we feel in the MTA is in carving out a non-automobile based way of life in a country where the ability to drive and own a a car is synonymous with independence and coming of age.
We're also a little proud of the fact that it never stops running even if the trains are only running every twenty minutes. I can not describe how freeing it is to not feel bound by a metro closing time (as I so often do when I visit London or Seoul or Hong Kong).
Wait, are you talking about Moscow? Because the MTA/TWU in New York is rife with corruption and embezzlement. That's the whole problem.
I agree, though, with the ultimate point: the MTA is utterly inept (or more accurately: utterly corrupt) and needs massive reform.
https://nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-cons...
Moscow is not in a third-world country, in either sense of the word. It's not in a developing nation (colloquial contemporary use of the word), and it's not in a country that remained unallied with the US and Russia during the Cold War, which is the original meaning of the word.
I'd imagine it would be a lot easier in Soviet Russia to just say "we're upgrading this, the line will be down for a week, deal with it". It was an authoritarian state, you're not running for reelection, it didn't matter if people got a bit miffed at delays due to an upgrade.
1. New York is not a democracy in anything but name. Voters have basically no control over the state government; the party establishment has fully captured that role.
2. The MTA doesn't have a funding problem. It has a spending problem - it literally pays people six-figure salaries to do absolutely nothing: https://nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-cons...
[0] https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/7/11/the-hills-are-...
[1] https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2010/03/09/albany-didnt-cut-the-...
So yeah, people had no say if a district shut your metro station down for 4 months for repairs (which still happens today), but you had and have many alternatives to get where you want to, so at best it's a minor inconvenience.
Compare this to where I grew up in the Midwest, if the buses there broke that was it. Hope you knew someone with a car who was home or liked walkjng (and I've done a few 7 mile walks home when buses broke down, since my choice was wait an hour in the cold for the next bus or just walk)
Deal with it now in russia and in the ussr basically meant "pick one of these other services".
In that respect I think it's truly unique.
If you don't know of this try an image search for moscow subway
Despite how bad it is, the NYC subway is still the best public transit system in the US, so Americans are infatuated with it, especially those who never user other subway systems.
So New Yorkers are like "BART sucks, my subway is way better, itś amazing", while the rest of the world is like "oh, you have shitty dirty metal boxes that break down all the time and you call it public transit, how cute..."
NYC subway is complete trash, it's one of the most depressing aspects of living in New York. Any impressiveness that comes from it is not from the system itself but rather the density of the surface above it. You feel like you just got from one side of the city to another quickly, but that was in spite of the crappy subway system; it was because so much is crammed within 2 miles above you!
New York is compared to London and Hong Kong. That's why they're called the Big Three.
I'll be the first one to talk at length about the many problems of the MTA and the effects on New York public transit, but to be honest, it still comes out ahead of London. It's absurdly expensive due to corruption, and there's no excuse for amount of money the MTA spends for the outcomes it delivers on, but the picture you're painting isn't accurate either.
I think vehicular traffic is far and away the most depressing aspect of NYC. All of the noise, pollution, bad attitudes, and danger to pedestrians and cyclists and it's not even close to being a timely and efficient way to get around. The subway is a damn miracle compared to any other current form of surface transportation.
I believe Moscow has traditionally had way more support from the overall country as opposed to just being funded from Moscow proper. Has there ever been something similar as "Ford to City: Drop Dead" with Moscow/the metro system?
My guess is that one or more of the carriers refuse to use multi-antenna solutions or are holding out for exclusivity.
https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2017/novemb...
The tunnel gauge isn't a major problem. The standard technology for providing wireless coverage inside tunnels is a leaky feeder or radiating cable - a length of coax cable with a perforated shield. The leaky feeder acts like an antenna with a very elongated radiation pattern. As long as the distance between stations isn't too great, then you don't actually need to put any equipment inside the tunnel other than a length of cable.
It used to only work reliably on and near the platforms but nowadays you can watch full HD YouTube videos all along the line with minimal issues.
How is that different from having a chat with a friend next to you?
http://www.masstransitmag.com/article/12242267/mobile-commun...
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/21/7260271/how-at-t-brought...
27 years ?!?! How is this not monopolistic?
That seems like a much simpler solution than creating a new monopolistic and rent-seeking company.
For NYC, in theory it would have been better if the infrastructure was provided by the MTA and access to it was rented out to each carrier based on usage.
I don't really get it. Do you think the government should never award any contracts to anyone? How do you think that will work?
Put in your own headphones and get over it.
Hypocrisy and outrage are an ugly combination.
Unless you want filtering, people are going to make calls anyway, and they don't need to be particularly tech savvy to do so.
For international calling, VOIP actually tends to be better than POTS. It's 50/50 for domestic, I usually just ring but my friends use VOIP.
On their commute most people are wearing earphones which will drown out external noise so they don't shout in their phones.
1. They build a network on their own dime in the tunnels
2. They pay MTA "rent" for the privilege
3. They have an exclusive contract so other carriers pay them to use their infrastructure. AT&T, Verizon, etc. essentially operate as MVNOs in the tunnels.
The NYC subway has not “got wireless in the tunnels”.
FTA:
> Transit Wireless obviously is eyeing the tunnels as one of the most important infrastructure challenges going forward... Currently, the company is offering a pilot demonstration of tunnel service on the shuttle between Times Square and Grand Central Station, which launched in December.
There's free Wi-Fi on the tube, but only in stations. So you have around 30 seconds to connect and check before getting disconnected.
https://www.freedommobile.ca/network-and-coverage/subway-cov...
It might be dead reckoning working remarkably well I suppose.
An alternative to using leaky feeder in underground railways is to use Distributed Antenna System (DAS). A DAS system was deployed in some New York City Subway stations by Transit Wireless to provide WiFi and mobile phone and data coverage for customers.