Washington DC Metro Riders Will Soon Be Able To Use Their iPhones Underground
by Dave Clarke
May 17, 2009
Anyone who lives in the Washington, DC area and commutes to work using the subway knows that when it comes to being able to use their cell phones underground, unless your service provider is Verizon Wireless, you won't have any signal. That's because the agency that runs the Metro system has had an exclusive agreement with Verizon for over a decade that has prohibited any other cell carrier to install the devices in the system that would allow for service.
All that is about to change however and starting in October of this year, 20 Metro stations will have the equipment installed necessary for AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint as well as Verizon Wireless users to make and receive calls on their cell phones. The busiest 20 stations were chosen first, with the remainding 27 stations following sometime in 2010.
As a life-long resident of the DC-area, and frequent user of the Metro system, I can't tell you how awesome this is going to be. There's nothing more annoying than being underground, stuck on a metro train and not having any signal on your iPhone or any other phone for that matter. I see a ton of iPhone owners everyday on the Metro so this move will no doubt be greeted with cheers from everyone.
