4 ms·

> zone out, or read a book, or go on Reddit Kind of? It can get pretty tight to the point where holding a book up is uncomfortable or not possible due to lack

> zone out, or read a book, or go on Reddit Kind of? It can get pretty tight to the point where holding a book up is uncomfortable or not possible due to lack of space. You only get internet at station stops and not in the tunnels, so it's a little bit tough to read Reddit. I usually get around this by pre-loading a bunch of essays I want to read. Yeah, you can put on your earbuds and zone out. But it's dark down there, and given how short the days are in the winter, it doesn't feel nice to be trapped underground for so long. I'd honestly rather take a reliable bus (as if these even exist) in the morning.

cozzyd 9y ago
Surprised that NYC doesn't have service in tunnels. CTA has LTE everywhere nowadays. Granted, most of CTA's network is above ground and there are only ~20 miles of underground tracks...
- paganel 9y ago
  > Surprised that NYC doesn't have service in tunnels. They don't? Damn, then the internet and telecom and providers in the States are really f*cking their customers up, pardon my French, but that's the gentlest way to put it. Let's say that I can understand that the US is a big country and that you cannot lay fiber over such big of an area as dense as it happens in certain parts of Europe, but to not have metro tunnel coverage for biggest cities in the world is just laughable. The Eastern European capital from where I'm writing this comment has had such a service for at least 5 years, if not more.
  - chimeracoder 9y ago
    > The Eastern European capital from where I'm writing this comment has had such a service for at least 5 years, if not more. I won't deny that the agency responsible for New York transit is incorrigibly corrupt, along with the New York State government that is ostensibly responsible for holding them accountable. That said, there is cell service in most stations (I think they finished the rollout recently, so it may be in all stations now). You don't get cell service in all tunnels, but that's because the New York subway system is very old. For comparison, that's the case in London as well: you get cell service in most of the below-ground stations on the Underground, but not necessarily in all of the tunnels.
    - Symbiote 9y ago
      London will have phone service next year. The previous time public negotiations were discussed, something like 5-8 years ago, the phone companies weren't willing to pay the installation cost Transport for London (i.e. the government) demanded. I can see the price to install the equipment being very high — confined space, only a few hours overnight in which to work, and many metal-lined tunnels which probably mean a custom solution is necessary. https://www.ft.com/content/3cead702-4530-11e7-8d27-59b4dd6296b8 https://www.ft.com/content/3cead702-4530-11e7-8d27-59b4dd629...
  - smnscu 9y ago
    I'm gonna guess you also live in Bucharest. Not really a fair comparison, since our Internet is so absurdly (considering nothing else works properly) amazing [1]. ^_^ Jokes aside, yeah, that's what you get when there's a lot of money at play and a longstanding monopoly [2]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_connection_speeds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_... 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Telephone_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Telephone_Company
    - paganel 9y ago
      Yeah, I think both Orange and Vodafone only started taking tunnel coverage seriously once RCS&RDS started providing free WiFi inside the stations for their residential cable and internet subscribers. Until then doing Internet coverage inside all the tunnels was presented to us, customers, as “too difficult”

cozzyd 9y ago

Surprised that NYC doesn't have service in tunnels. CTA has LTE everywhere nowadays. Granted, most of CTA's network is above ground and there are only ~20 miles of underground tracks...

paganel 9y ago
> Surprised that NYC doesn't have service in tunnels. They don't? Damn, then the internet and telecom and providers in the States are really f*cking their customers up, pardon my French, but that's the gentlest way to put it. Let's say that I can understand that the US is a big country and that you cannot lay fiber over such big of an area as dense as it happens in certain parts of Europe, but to not have metro tunnel coverage for biggest cities in the world is just laughable. The Eastern European capital from where I'm writing this comment has had such a service for at least 5 years, if not more.
- chimeracoder 9y ago
  > The Eastern European capital from where I'm writing this comment has had such a service for at least 5 years, if not more. I won't deny that the agency responsible for New York transit is incorrigibly corrupt, along with the New York State government that is ostensibly responsible for holding them accountable. That said, there is cell service in most stations (I think they finished the rollout recently, so it may be in all stations now). You don't get cell service in all tunnels, but that's because the New York subway system is very old. For comparison, that's the case in London as well: you get cell service in most of the below-ground stations on the Underground, but not necessarily in all of the tunnels.
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    London will have phone service next year. The previous time public negotiations were discussed, something like 5-8 years ago, the phone companies weren't willing to pay the installation cost Transport for London (i.e. the government) demanded. I can see the price to install the equipment being very high — confined space, only a few hours overnight in which to work, and many metal-lined tunnels which probably mean a custom solution is necessary. https://www.ft.com/content/3cead702-4530-11e7-8d27-59b4dd6296b8 https://www.ft.com/content/3cead702-4530-11e7-8d27-59b4dd629...
- smnscu 9y ago
  I'm gonna guess you also live in Bucharest. Not really a fair comparison, since our Internet is so absurdly (considering nothing else works properly) amazing [1]. ^_^ Jokes aside, yeah, that's what you get when there's a lot of money at play and a longstanding monopoly [2]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_connection_speeds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_... 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Telephone_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Telephone_Company
  - paganel 9y ago
    Yeah, I think both Orange and Vodafone only started taking tunnel coverage seriously once RCS&RDS started providing free WiFi inside the stations for their residential cable and internet subscribers. Until then doing Internet coverage inside all the tunnels was presented to us, customers, as “too difficult”