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Wi-Fi, Cell Service Could Come to Moving Subway Cars


September 18, 2013 | Andy Cush

That moment–when you come above ground onto the Manhattan Bridge on the N train, or you pull into 14th Street on the A, and you’re frantically refreshing your Twitter and Instagram feeds to give yourself something new to look at for the next 10 minutes–may soon be a thing of the past. MTA chairman Thomas F. Prendergast said yesterday that he’d like to add Wi-Fi and cellular service to subway cars, accessible even when they’re moving between stations.

At the moment, it’s more vague vision for the future than rock-solid plan, and you may end up paying for the privilege. According to the New York Times“there is no timeline for a plan, and it is unclear how the project would be financed — or even if the service would be free.”

If it does happen, though, you have lazy, entitled, social media-obsessed young people to thank. “It is one of the features that the X’ers and the Y’ers and the millennials consider an expectation or an entitlement, not a luxury,” said Prendergast.

(Photo: momentcaptured1/Flickr)