Internet Access On Public Transit

A graduate student points out that transit agencies are overlooking a major source of income: wireless Internet access on trains.

1 minute read

November 30, 2004, 11:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen

"As the Metropolitan Transit Authority struggles with its newest round of financial and political woes, the agency is failing to consider a ripe opportunity for peripheral economic development: providing wireless Internet access, commonly called Wi-Fi (for wireless fidelity) on its commuter trains...

Expenses are difficult to quantify, but studies of other deployments show an investment by the MTA would hardly dent its new $200 million rainy day fund. If the project still seems too expensive, consider air conditioning, which was seen as an unnecessary investment by train operators in the 1930s and 1940s."

Thanks to Chris Steins

FULL STORY: Put Internet Access On The Trains

Monday, November 29, 2004 in The Gotham Gazette

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