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Carriers Balk At NYC Subway Buildout Costs
New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority has been trying to move ahead with plans to extend cellular coverage to the city's subway, soliciting bids back in August. The MTA's since had to push the deadline for bids back three times thanks to a chilly response from carriers, who don't seem to be convinced that it's in their interest to build the underground network. As part of the RFP, the MTA stipulated that whoever builds the network must allow open access to all carriers, though it could charge for that access, and would have to pay rent to the MTA. With those conditions, carriers are balking -- particularly since the network wouldn't generate much additional revenue for them, since few people pay per-minute charges on their cell phones and draw from monthly buckets of airtime instead. Although there's a possibility the nation's four major carriers may band together for the project, it's far from a sure thing. Some analysts say the situation merely reflects carriers' ambivalence to improving service that won't generate additional revenues, and given all the money they've been spending on high-speed data networks on which to sell overpriced services, it's not hard to believe that point of view.
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Norway has had this for years
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Carriers Balk At NYC Subway Buildout Costs
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