Originally published December 18 2005
BART the first underground transit system to have wireless service
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
San Francisco's BART will offer wireless service to the passengers on its underground trains. Commuters in San Francisco will be able to use their cell phones, go on the internet and send email.
BART has become the first transit system in the nation to offer wireless communication to all passengers on its trains underground, putting an end to miles of silence for multitasking commuters with cell phones glued to their ears, Blackberry devices stuck in their palms and computers perched on their laps.
"The goal we have is to completely wire 100 percent of the underground so a passenger (on a wireless device) wouldn't know if they were above ground or underground,'' said Chuck Rae, BART's manager of telecommunications revenue.
Within weeks, most passengers should be able to use wireless devices under San Francisco to phone in a pizza order on their way home.
Downtown Oakland is probably next, followed by Civic Center to Balboa Park, the Transbay Tube, the Berkeley hills tunnel and the Berkeley subway.
Five of the Bay Area's six wireless companies have signed up to use the system, Rae said, and the sixth is in negotiations.
When BART first broached the idea in mid-2001 of wiring its nether regions for wireless reception, many passengers squawked about having to listen to nonstop chatter from cellular phones.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred while the surveys were being taken, and BART officials believe the widely publicized use of cell phones during the attacks persuaded many passengers to support wiring the tunnels.
Commuters interviewed in downtown San Francisco BART stations Thursday and Friday were mostly receptive to the idea of subterranean cell phone service, although some fretted that loud, ill-mannered callers would degrade the quality of their commutes.
But many BART riders welcome below-ground cell-phone service, although they worry about loudmouthed louts shouting into their cell phones to be heard over the train noise.
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