Subway stations in New York City will receive Wi-Fi-based Internet services over the next five years, Boingo said Thursday.
Boingo will manage and operate the access points in conjunction with Transit Wireless, the companies said, eventually serving New York's more than 1.6 billion subway riders.
Boingo promised one-click access to the hotspots, which, unfortunately, will not be accessible by the train once it enters the tunnel. Loitering passengers, however, will be able to tap into the Boingo network of hotspots, accessible by roaming partners including Skype, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
Once completed, Boingo Wi-Fi services will be available at stations throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens.
"Our alliance with Transit Wireless is another milestone for Boingo in our ongoing effort to expand our managed and operated footprint and provide added value to our customers – especially those in New York City," said Colby Goff, senior vice president of strategy and business development for Boingo Wireless, in a statement. "We look forward to providing New Yorkers, our customers and our roaming partners with the reliable connectivity they crave, whether at street level or on the subway platform."
Accessing Wi-Fi via the subway has been a priority overseas, with London's Underground signing a contract with Virgin to install acces points at 80 Tube stations in time for the Olympics. Access will be free until after the Games, when the network will move to a pay-as-you-go system.
In the U.S., however, placing Wi-Fi service in trains has been slow going. In the Bay Area, for example, Wi-Fi access has been largely replaced by 3G cellular antennas in stations and tunnels, reflecting the shift from laptops to smartphones to access the Internet.
In New York, the Metropolitan Transit Authority awarded Transit Wireless a contract in 2010 to outfit all 277 subway stations with Wi-Fi. In March 2011, MTA launched a trial, managed by Transit Wireless, of five subway stations along the 14th Street corridor. These include: 14th and Broadway, 14th and Sixth Avenue, 14th and Eighth Avenue, 14th and Third Avenue, and 14th and First Avenue.
New York's subway system already has Internet access of sorts; in 2011, Transit Wireless installed wireless service at six stations: the 23rd St/8th Ave. station (A, C, E lines); the 14th St./8th Ave. station (A, C, E, L); the 14th St./7th Ave. station (1, 2, 3) and the 14th St./6th Ave. station (F, L, M). The two stations serving the "L" line are considered to be separate stations. As of now, however, only AT&T and T-Mobile customers can tap into the small Transit Wireless network.
Proposals have also been filed to place Wi-Fi on the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) and other commuter trains, but so far, nothing has happened.
For more, check out our slideshow from when the MTA first launched cell-phone service within NYC's subway stations below.
For more from Mark, follow him on Twitter @MarkHachman.
