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Cell Phones in Subways: Not For 911

by Tim Stevens on October 15, 2007 at 12:28 PM

Cell Phones in Subways: Not For 911

Last month, we reported that New York City's subway system was being wired to bring cell phone reception to its subterranean stations. Besides bringing the conveniences of e-mail and voice to this otherwise uncharted territory, many New Yorkers felt a sense of relief that emergency calls from underground would now be possible. However, it seems that's not exactly what the Metropolitan Transit Authority had in mind with last month's announcement. In fact, by the sounds of recent statements made by the MTA, an emergency is the last time it would want people to reach for their mobiles.

MTA officials have indicated that during an emergency, all travelers should give their undivided attention to MTA employees -- not to their handsets. Additionally, the MTA fears that hundreds of panicked travelers simultaneously calling 911 to report the same emergency could flood phone lines unnecessarily if the emergency has already been reported. We saw similar outages occur during Hurricane Katrina and the Minneapolis bridge collapse, so this concern isn't completely without merit.

Another concern raised by the MTA about cell phones in stations is much more ominous. According to MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin speaking to the Daily News, a cell phone may serve as an "accidental detonator during such an [emergency] incident." Though Soffin, somewhat oddly, doesn't elaborate on this statement, he seems to be suggesting that during an underground emergency, a flurry of cell phone activity could potentially set off a device that just happens to be there waiting to go off, but has nothing to do with the current emergency.

Are we then to believe that there are any number of explosive devices out there in New York's underground that the MTA doesn't know about?

From textually.org and Daily News

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Tags: cell phones, CellPhones, MTA, NYC, subway

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