The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority turned on wireless service in four subway stations in Manhattan Tuesday, marking the first time a straphanger could reliably use their cellphone while waiting for their train. As previously reported, service was turned on at four stations: the C and E platforms at 23rd Street and Eight Avenue; the A, C, E and L platforms on 14th Street and Eighth Avenue; the F, M, and L platforms at the Avenue of the Americas and 14th Street; and the 1, 2 and 3 platforms at the Seventh Avenue station, also on 14th Street. AT&T and T-Mobile customers are the only ones to get service down in those stations, so Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel subscribers will still have to wait longer. "This is just the beginning," said Carmen Bianco, senior vice president of subway operations for the MTA, during a press conference today at the Chelsea subway station on 14th Street. The MTA plans to expand wireless coverage to 30 additional subway stations, including a few hubs, over the next 12 months, Bianco said. The plan is to cover all of the stations with wireless in New York over the next four years. The total projected cost: $100 million to $200 million.

According to the MTA's contractors, the mta subways of New York will have supposedly eventually have wireless data connectivity. There was a burst of newspaper articles in mid-2010 indicating that a company called Transit Wireless had landed a contract to bring wifi, wireless, and cellular data connectivity underground to the mta: According to a report in The Daily News, MTA Transit Wireless will have two years to set up technology testing sites in a handful of the city’s 277 underground stations. Once the testing is complete, another four years will be allotted to hook up the rest.