NYFI aims to implement free WiFi on Long Island Rail Road and Metro
By Darren Murph 
posted June 16th 2010 10:27AM
posted June 16th 2010 10:27AM
Mmm... the smell of gratis wireless broadband in morning. Even Starbucks agrees, you just can't beat it. One smell we could stand to live without is the stench left on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro after a few too many party people hitch a ride following a long Sunday in the city pub, but having free access to the world wide web while riding will make the act of dealing a whole lot easier. All jesting aside, NYFI (described as a "well financed neutral host WiFi provider"), has recently submitted a proposal to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York (MTA) to "build and operate a new WiFi network on Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road trains." Unlike similar ideas thrown around in the Big Apple, this setup won't require users to be subscribers of a cable service or any of the many religious cults going around these days. Head on past the break if you actually care to know how it'll be financed (hint: you don't), and be sure to push whoever you have to push to ensure this gets passed. Got it? NYFI™ Bringing Free Wi-Fi to NY Commuter Trains
Riders of the Long Island Rail Road and Metro North Trains Will Receive Free Wi-Fi Without Subscribing to Any Costly Service Plans, If NYFI Service Proposal is Accepted by the MTA.
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NYFI, a well financed neutral host Wi-Fi provider, has submitted a proposal to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York (MTA) to build and operate a new Wi-Fi network on Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road trains. Unlike another proposal, the NYFI solution would not require users to subscribe to a service like Cablevision to access the system without paying. NYFI service is designed to be good for everyone.
Rather than using a pay-for-service model where user fees fund on board Wi-Fi, the NYFI approach would first assist the MTA by paying for an operational revamp of the MTA's revenue generating activities, like advertising. The revamp would be led by highly experienced firms. The results are expected to more than cover costs associated with the free Wi-Fi system, yielding increased annual revenue to the MTA, while reducing costs.
The NYFI implementation team includes firms deeply experienced with the installation and operation of Wi-Fi on trains. The team believes the MTA is taking the right approach to solving the need for free Wi-Fi on commuter trains. Asking for creative solutions from the private sector may be the beginning of new "private-public" partnerships resulting in better services and no fare increases to commuters.
The NYFI free Wi-Fi solution would kick off as soon as the proposal is accepted by the MTA.
NYFI™ is a free Wi-Fi service sponsored by Mobilitie – the industry leading private telecommunications infrastructure provider. Mobilitie is one of the largest fiber optic network owners in Manhattan and also owns thousands of other wireless assets across the country. More information is available at mobilitie.com.
Update: We've spoken with Alex Mashinsky, founder of Transit Wireless, for his take on the details behind the project. Below are his statements:
"We have added http://www.broadcastaustralia.com.au/ as a partner to the venture to strengthen our technical and financial capabilities. they will be funding the majority of the capital outlays and helping with the technical implementation.
Our design and implementation will put NYC as the leading worldwide underground system in terms of coverage, speed and overall available bandwidth to the 7m daily commuters who use the network of 277 stations.
We hope to finish the construction ahead of the announced MTA deadlines and launch all 5 licensed NYC carriers + several Wifi providers. There will be no extra cost for users and they will be able to enjoy seamless roaming and strong signal underground.
Since the signal will propagate beyond the stations you will have a "quiet cars" effect, the middle cars will not have receptions in the tunnels but the first and last car should still get strong signal especially in the wide tunnels with the express lanes.
This project will cost between $150-200m to build and will service over 7m daily commuters for voice and data transmissions. We will support 3G and 4G services and will be deploying them based on the carriers requests.
Many other services are planed as well which will allow enhanced messaging and capabilities in the subways and leapfrog our wireless services and connectivity from the last place in the developed world to the first place.
In addition to Transit Wireless I am also the founder of GroundLink which operates the worlds largest platform for ground services. we are in the process of deploying 110v + USB power and WiFi service in all the vehicles in our network so each moving car will become a hotspot and enable 16 users to log in at the same time. "
As long as it's not provided by AT&T
@Stevenk
I've tried the WiFi a few times on the Boston-NYC Acela. It's pretty awful. I'm told it draws signals from the four major networks (Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile) to amass its coverage, but it really doesn't work very well, because sometimes it's very quick, and other times it's completely dead.
Considering you can't get ANY cell signals on most of the trains in NYC, anything would be better than nothing.
What is the Long Island Road Road? I lived there for the first 2 decades of my life and I think you meant LIRR or the Long Island Rail Road, Right?
@ttringle
Road Road?
@ttringle
Damn, you beat me to it. The funny part is that they said "Road Road" more than once (in the title and in the article itself), as if they actually though that it was right, even though it clearly doesn't even make sense, even if you don't live on LI.
Surely engadget can afford to hire an editor, or even an intern or two for spell checking
@ttringle
I'm trying to decide whether this is laziness, apathy, or incompetence
@ttringle
Worst yet, they don't even seem to read our comments, otherwise the post would have been corrected by now.
@ttringle
Long Island Road Road instead of Long Island Rail Road?
Metro instead of Metro North?
A photo that looks like neither rail system's trains?
Good thing they didn't mention the New York City Subway. They probably would have called it "The Sub".
@rlopin Took them almost an hour to correct it to "Rail Road" but still didn't fix "Metro"
Also its not "Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York" its just "Metropolitan Transportation Authority" since its also in Connecticut (kind of)
@CTTHosting
The MTA is a New York State agency, it just has deals with the Connecticut DOT to run its trains under Metro North branding. It does something similar in New Jersey (where Metro North runs west of the Hudson into New York as NJT).
@rlopin Perhaps a division of New York New York Sports Sports?
http://nynysportssports.com/#/home
@ttringle All I can say is where we are going, we won't need Road Roads.
Long Island Road Road? I think you meant Long Island Rail Road...
Come on, proof read people!
@mr88
But then who's gonna proofread the posts?
@NHAnimator
Huh? Not sure I'm getting your joke... Sorry.
I see the age of proof-reading articles before posting has come to a close... ;-)
Still waiting for WiFi in Montreal Metro .
ok, This article is obviously not written by anyone in the NY / Tri State Area. First of all it's Rail Road, not Road Road...and it's Metro NORTH. No one ever calls it the metro. This is not DC. This is almost borderline offensive.
@zepfloyd also that picture they have is not even one of their trains. although i do wish it was
@zepfloyd
What is it about New Yorkers that causes them to be so easily offended? Surely it's not the luck of living in the greatest city in the world?
@newyorkcity I was wondering about that photo. You will find those same seats in German regional trains [1] which leads me to suspect that some lazy editor just googled for a picture of train seats.
[1] http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:VT_642_Innenraum_Westpfalz-Netz.jpg&filetimestamp=20081229110316
@whiskers
I was being a bit tongue in cheek there...but New Yorkers are proud about everything, good or bad...it's the NY attitude. Any commuter you'd talk to would gripe about the MTA, but it's still METRO NORTH.
@zepfloyd Last time I was on a public train was in Chicago and the seats were much less comfortable:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/121/316140195_029217ab5e.jpg
That's what they look like. (Though a bit less festive)
Dang I wish they put wifi on regular subway lines instead they putting wifi on commuter lines to the suburbs of the nyc metro area. At least its not provided by ATaT though!
@replicant man You are right on that one. There are orders of magnitude more people riding the NYC subway than all of the commuter rails combined (Long Island Rail Road and Metro North).
Also, 2G/3G/4G data can be reached on the commuter rails already since they are above ground from phones and aircard equipped laptops. The subways need this more than anything.
The one concern I would have with subways is this could open up an easier way for terrorists to remotely detonate a bomb. That I am not liking.
@replicant man
The MBTA (in Boston) commuter rail has free WiFi on most trains, but it's incredibly slow and unreliable. I don't even bother connecting to it any more, just use the 3G connection on my phone - it's faster and doesn't disconnect me every 5 mins.
@rlopin MOst people on the subway use it for short trips (a couple of blocks maybe) while the LIRR is used to cover MILES. You can easily spend about an hour or longer on the LIRR at one time.
@rlopin Have you ever ridden the NYC subway system? There's rarely room to move let alone take out your laptop. Besides, you're often only on the train for 20 minutes (depending on your commute though, it could reach 45 minutes to an hour).
I often take Metro North, and my commute is then 2 hours, with plenty of room to take out your laptop and a coffee. Additionally, I think most people forget that smartphone users only account for roughly 20% of the cellphone market - meaning those expensive data services only help those with thick wallets and the desire to work on a tiny screen. I think the decision to put wifi on the commuter trains is a much smarter one.
@rlopin It depends on which subway line and where you are. With some lines, like the 1 train, I can get service in some areas. If you go into Queens, Brooklyn or Harlem the subways are not underground all the time.
@Tommy Five
Good points.
"well financed neutral host WiFi provider"
Ah, the 802.11Nostra.
This might be the most poorly written article I've ever seen on this site.
@yankees368: Really? I've seen plenty that are even worse. Still, it would be novel if the editors actually read the press releases that they posted up. I'd think Darren would be exceptional at writing by now; after all, he's coming up to 20,000 posts for Engadget within the next few months.
Free wifi on the LIRR would be amazing!!
@dirtyjeep
it would in fact be amazing. Time Warner and Cablevision wifi on the "road road" sucks and has a lot of dead zones *Especially on the Port Jefferson and West Hempstead Lines*
Free Wifi = awesome = basic human right
@edroid Rights are not Entitlements. Just because you have the right to have something doesn't mean someone should be forced to give it to you, but they can be forced from taking it away.
@Andir Touché. Although that doesn't mean it shouldn't be an explicit right even still. Just because government need not provide this "right" for free wifi, that doesn't mean they can't protect our "right" to free wifi, just like the "right to bear arms".
Either way, I was never aware of the difference between a "right" and an "entitlement" till now. Thanks for the clarification...
At over $200 a month for the Metro North, not only should it have WiFi but it should also run 24/7!
Perhaps if the network gets overloaded with users, they could play a recording over the PA from Steve Jobs telling everyone to get off their WiFi.
@SemisolidSnake
I hate the media. Just because it was Apple they had to show it on CNN, NBC, CBS, FOX and all the other network news channels. Why didn't Google get the same media attention when they also had a Bluetooth/WiFi problem. Didn't Nintendo have the same problem at E3 the other day?
@CTTHosting
Yeah but it goes both ways with the media. They will also talk about how many iPhone 4s have been sold and hype it up before it comes out. I'm not a fanboy hating on the press Apple gets, just pointing out that it goes both ways. Anything Apple does, good or bad, is in the spotlight.
In Finland VR has started to implement free WiFi to trains long time ago..
And in Helsinki there is free wifi in almost every public transportation vechiles..
thank god. i've been wanting this for years
Is it just me or has Engadget had a lot of typos recently? Where are the copy editors for obvious gaffs like this one: "One smell we could stand to live without is the stench left on the Long Island Road Road and Metro."
The company's name is horrible! NYFI? How is that suppose to be pronounced? Knifey? Is there going to be a PR compain that says, "When you come to New York, make sure to use a little NYFI!" that will horrify tourists because they'll think everyone is carrying a little knife around?
@Garst my guess would be it would be pronounced en-why-fy.