WiFi connectivity may soon be rolled out to the one place in modern America that is still in the dark.
Although New York City is one of the most connected cities on the planet, there’s something that millions of people do every single day that relegates them to a bygone era where there is no Internet or mobile phone service – riding the subway.
The underground rail system is largely disconnected from the outside world.
A company called Transit Wireless is working to make this a thing of the past, something that admittedly is long overdue. But oh, this isn’t something that the company is doing just for the sake of making the morning commute more enjoyable.
If you want the luxury of connecting to the Internet from the subway, you’ll have to pay. For those who don’t want the hassle of breaking on a large electronic device on the subway, it is also going to provide roaming data access for mobile users. Yeah, roaming, which means that will cost extra too.
That’s where its partner, Boingo Wireless, comes in. Boingo is starting to become irrelevant, but it remains one of the largest providers of pay-for-access WiFi throughout the country.
Where it is still relevant are in places where it is able to feast on user boredom, like airports. Adding the NYC subway to its quiver would give it a huge boost.
There is something quaint about the fact that the biggest city in the country still operates without an online connection in one of its most heralded infrastructures, but given that people still whip out their iPads and Kindles, having connectivity available would be something that riders would easily gravitate toward.
