BART directors voted unanimously on Thursday to approve a plan to improve cellphone connectivity and provide seamless Wi-Fi coverage in a gradual process over five years.
BART officials said the project will involve constructing new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth infrastructure, enhance cellular coverage to drastically reduce dropped calls, provide reliable connectivity for video and audio
streaming while riding and waiting, and allow for improved app functionality, even in underground stations.
They said the project also lays the groundwork necessary for potential future mobile ticketing and on-demand personalized service information on a riders’ device of choice.
New BART General Manager Bob Powers said the advances are part of his emphasis on improving customers’ experience while generating revenue for the transit system by expanding underground cellular and fiber optic
infrastructure.
“We must bring our technology up-to-date and expand broadband coverage to better compete in the transportation market and provide convenient, easy to use transit,” Powers said in a statement.
The plan calls for BART and the San Francisco Municipal Railway to partner with Mobilitie, the country’s largest private wireless infrastructure company, to add underground cell coverage to three Muni tunnels — Sunset, Twin Peaks and the Central Subway — within three years.
The next phase will require Mobilitie, which is based in Newport Beach, Calif., to build new wireless systems in all BART stations within four years.
The third phase of the proposal will extend wireless services from the stations to BART’s new “Fleet of the Future” train cars.
The final phase involves installing new commercial fiber optic cables along some BART and Muni rights of way.
The four projects are expected to bring in more than $243 million over 20 years, with all capital and operating expenses borne by Mobilitie, according to BART officials.
BART Chief Information Officer Ravi Misra, who led the planning and negotiations for the project, said, “This digital railway project opens up the potential for BART to offer world class digital communication to our riders and to modernize our business practices in the field.”
Partnerships are important.
The new SMART system in the north bay partnered with a cable company. The deal is, the cable company gets to run their fiber network along SMART’s 50+ miles of rail, and in exchange they maintain SMART’s rail network and give SMART internet service for free.
If only BART were this focused on passenger safety…oh, well, I hardly ride it anymore, which is one way to protect yourself.
BART needs “5 years to gradually process”these upgrades are you kidding me!!! In 5 years these upgrades will be outdated. This is the Bay Area how the hell can this take so long. BART sinks, thanks for the fare increase. I will support BART as least as possible.
This plan is as silly as the “ambassador” plan. Spend the money on having a full-fledged police officer for EVERY train, even if it means pulling some out of their patrol vehicles. Their focus should be on safety ON the trains.
Does this mean the passenger next to me will be looking at porn?
If you are streaming porn, the passenger next you WILL be looking at it, even if they try not to.
It’s BART’s job to get people from A to B quickly and efficiently, not entertain them.
5 years to update wi-fi is not an update – It’ll be outdated.
5G will be the norm in 5 years & 5G apps will be too big to work on 4G just like pics on 4G cannot be sent on 2G cuz they’re too big.
About time… New York subways have had WiFi for years now and they’ve got a million more riders than BART… Why is it gonna take so long?
All they have to do is run fiber optics along the Bart tracks which shouldn’t take that long. It doesn’t take the cable guy a month to install your cable.. It shouldn’t take a team of cable guys 5 years to run some cables.. They don’t even have to be underground..
So more people will be staring at their phones, completely oblivious to the rest of the world – while some POS grabs their phone and runs off.
Like Kirkwood said – BART needs to concentrate on transportation and not entertainment. A turd covered with perfume is still a turd.