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Orange Line riders to get complete cell coverage starting tomorrow - if they use AT&T or T-Mobile
By adamg on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 11:00am
The MBTA's holding a little ceremony at Ruggles this morning to announce that the entire Orange Line, including underground stations and tunnels, will be bathed in the soothing electronic aura of cell-phone coverage from AT&T and T-Mobile.
The T says Red Line riders south of Charles/MGH will get similar end-to-end coverage in May. Terminus-to-terminus service on the Blue and Green Lines is still in the design stage.
The T is also announcing a new public-safety campaign to tell people to be alert while using their smart phones to avoid having them stolen - the T says smart-phone thefts are up dramatically over last year (46 to date, compared to 27 during the same period last year). So listen for MBTA Police Chief Paul MacMillan soon on a loudspeaker near you.
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Comments
Cell phones on the Orange Line
How is this an improvement? It is the rare Orange Line car that is not screaming with eardrum drilling screetches of bleeding earbuds. While above ground we already enjoy the non-stop chatter about boyfriends who are jerks, girlfriends "who won't," and a cacaphony of non-stop moving mouths powered by loud vocal cords. At least in tunnels the chatter had to die back due to no signal. Now the T management wants to cause the endless stream of trash talk to run throughout the line?
Added to the incessant upchuck of PA announcements is yet another bark reminding the quiet-challenged motormouths that to be on the alert because the cellphone they are using to pollute a car with more noise may be stolen?
Sometimes I think that the T management is engaged in a grand, institutional form of passive-aggressive terrorism against its riders. They are constantly looking for opportunities to throw yet more visual and auditory pollution at riders.
My nightmare: That the T in fact is a circular, exit-less Hell, and all the blathering, chattering, earbud eardrum busting MP3 screamers are the demons used by the Great Devil itself (insert Rush Limbaugh, Fox dis-news reporter-commentators here) to torment with an eternity of chatter and screech.
Charlie needs another verse
One where his wife flips him a cel phone and now he can tell her what he wants on his sandwich.
My Advice:
Move to 1952, or Mayberry, or both.
Mayberry - what a great idea!
Learning a few lessons from Mayberry could manage to save a life or two up here? Would the (usually) boys and men who join violent gangs need to join gangs if this were a more Mayberryish city? At least in the respect of most of us acting with more civility and less subtle and overt hostility toward each other?
But can there be civility in an environment where each person is assaulted by a non-stop barrage of visual and auditory noise?
As for 1952 from what I've read there is a Texas school board that is dominated by folks living in 1952 - no thanks. They chose to kick Tom Jefferson because he was, gasp....a Diest!
How else...
...will you be able to call the office to let them know you're stuck on the train and going to be late?
human rights violation
Forget everything you've heard about waterboarding, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, etc.
Real torture is being a captive audience to one of these ceaseless and pointless yammerings by someone over a cell phone. Not to mention the suited "business guys" (and they're almost always guys) who bellow loudly about their deals so that all may hear, as if we gave a flying f**k.
Thanks, MBTA, for making this happen on the O-Line.
Buses
Was on the bus yesterday and the MBTA ad said "Don't use your cell-phone in or around train or bus entrances."
Yes, the irony of having cell-phone coverage but warning you to not use your cell-phone is clear.
AT&T
It's AT&T. It's not intended for voice use. It's intended for the iPhone.
but.. but...
I agree on the silliness of this when I heard the announcement this morning (although the radio news said wi-fi, not cell phone). But why the orange line?? The line with the most crime. Had signs in the cars telling people not to use their phones because they're getting stolen all the time. The line with the shortest travel time. And the heavy rail line that's underground for the shortest stretch...
My first thoughts would have been the red line for this. hmmmm - reading the story, the Red line is coming on line in may, but only the southern section (charles/andrew). Wonder why the north side isn't getting it. And of course the press release is calling it wireless cell service - which is probably why the news was confused. (as opposed to that wired service they used to have for cell phones???)
what a state.
Just a guess...
But you probably nailed it here:
Given that the Red Line is next, and only short time later, it's probably all a timing thing; Orange line is shorter, therefore done faster.
Those signs...
The signs about phones being stolen are on the Red Line now, too. I think it'll probably be a T-wide thing, not an Orange Line thing.
Yeah, but people who don't
Yeah, but people who don't ride the orange line think it's scary and dangerous, so nobody on that line should get cell phone access, leave that for the supposed upstanding citizens of the PRC.
Noooooo
I'll miss the lovely moment of schadenfreude that would hit about 5 seconds after entering the tunnel between Mass Ave. and Back Bay, as well as the one just before Tufts Medical Center.
LOL
I was thinking the same thing, only for me it's between JFK and Andrew.
Ahhh sweet silence.
My joy has come from entering the tunnel after Community College. I have NEVER overheard what was not an inane conversion when it dropped. Almost as good as the silence is the extended slack jawed look on the callers face while staring at the phone.
Is there any way that the
Is there any way that the service can be limited to text messages and data, like in locations that allow for 911 calls only?
The only upside to this is if your train gets caught underground and someone is waiting for you.
As for me, when I get picked up at Alewife, I have a nice system. I make the call from Charles (giving me time to try again over the bridge) and the person picking me up knows to wait 5 minutes to leave the house. Simultaneous arrival at Alewife, every time
Not a convenience issue
This seems to be primarily about (what else?) revenue.
My guess is that they'd spin it as either annoying cell phones or
smart fiscal managementfare hikes.