Subway a Hard Cell for Phone Users

Far beneath the reach of cellular phone signals, the Los Angeles subway provides a rare escape from a society overwhelmed by constant chatter. Some riders, however, say the 30-minute commute leaves them feeling hopelessly disconnected.

Their wireless void may not last long. Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials say they are studying ways to add cellular service to the city’s 17.4-mile subway system.

“People want to have their cell phones with them at all times,” said Michelle Caldwell, the MTA’s deputy executive officer for business development. “It’s the way the whole world is going.”

The move will make Red Line passengers the newest players in what has become a worldwide technological tug of war over etiquette. The debate in Los Angeles has already started.

Gerald Weingarten, an Encino doctor, wants to use the subway but said his inability to use his cell phone and pager is a deal breaker. Just weeks after the new San Fernando Valley leg of the subway opened, he was back on the Ventura Freeway.

“I have to be in touch at all times with my exchange. It would be 30 minutes before I would be able to call back,” Weingarten said.

But as much as the doctor likes his cell phone, Nathaniel Palmer likes the peace and quiet of his daily downtown commute.

“If you can’t be out of touch for 20 to 30 minutes, then you really are out of touch with reality,” said Palmer, 38, a Toluca Lake resident. “It can’t dominate your life. It’s convenient to have a cell phone, but it’s not a necessity. I tell people, ‘If you don’t get me, I’m on the train.’ ”

For years, transit agencies worldwide have struggled with the issue. Cellular phone users want to be able to talk at all times, but other commuters complain about “cell yell.”

Tokyo transit officials have tried to ban phone use on trains. Antennas were installed so commuters could chat while waiting for trains at stations. But some riders try to use their phones while riding the trains, hoping to catch a signal at stops along the route.

“[An] announcement is made for passengers in the cars to refrain from making phone calls while trains stop at the station,” said Atushi Kamimura, a senior staff member with the Teito Rapid Transit Authority.

Kamimura said the agency has even considered jamming cell phone signals on the trains.

Technical Challenges Must Be Overcome

New York is headed in the opposite direction. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has hired a company to wire the commuter subway trains connecting the suburbs to Manhattan.

Although the suburban trains may soon be in range of cell phones, the regular subways in metropolitan New York will not.

“It’s too crowded,” said Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

In Northern California, riders rebelled last fall when Bay Area Rapid Transit disclosed it was considering a deal to install antennas in underground stations and tunnels. BART is still investigating the technical challenges, responding to intense interest from cell phone companies and their customers.

“We’ve been approached by virtually all the major players in cellular service,” said Ron Rodriguez, a BART spokesman.

Rodriguez acknowledged that BART has received complaints from passengers hoping to stop the introduction of cell phone service. But as elsewhere, the debate cuts both ways.

“We’ve also had a lot of people say it could be valuable,” Rodriguez said, noting that the transit system could boost revenue by charging cell phone companies a fee for outfitting trains and tunnels with antennas.

It also can be of value for cellular phone providers. Commuters on the Washington, D.C., Metro subway can use cell phones only if they are Verizon subscribers. The company, formed recently from the merger of the former Bell Atlantic and GTE, scored an exclusive deal in 1993 to put cellular phone infrastructure in the subway.

Although just one company provides service in the D.C. subway, the cell phone culture is pervasive.

“It’s an everyday occurrence that a cell phone rings on the subway and everyone checks to see if it’s them,” said Myron Jacobson, a lobbyist who commutes daily from Alexandria, Va., to Washington. Most commuters are discreet, using phones for short periods and quiet conversations, Jacobson said. “It doesn’t make for a very private conversation if you are sharing it with the entire car.”

Cellular phones operate on radio frequencies, which cannot naturally reach underground sites such as a subway, said Philip Deck, chief financial officer for Concourse Communications Group, a Springfield, Mass.-based company that specializes in establishing cell phone service in hard-to-reach places.

“It’s everything you can name. It’s the concrete. It’s the steel. The radio frequency just can’t get past it,” Deck said.

In subways, the typical method for providing cell phone service is to run coaxial cable capable of carrying radio transmissions through the tunnels. The cable is sliced open every few feet, allowing the radio frequency to leak out into the tunnel, Deck said.

Some Commuters Prefer the Break

At the Valley’s recently opened Universal City subway station, many commuters confessed to cell phone addiction, speaking of the difficulty of being out of touch for a full 30 minutes on the commute downtown.

Seeking a last-minute caretaker for her husband, who is ill with Parkinson’s disease, Janet Friedman tried in vain recently to use her Nokia phone on the subway platform.

“I would really like to have my phone work in the subway, no matter what the cost,” Friedman said.

Others suggested that cellular phones are not so essential that people cannot be without them for their commute.

Tamura Little, 25, a North Hollywood resident, rides the subway to her advertising job downtown daily. Little does not want to be bothered hearing someone else’s phone conversation.

“We’re in transit. It makes no sense. It can wait,” Little said. “It’s a breathing period.”

Trent Simmons, 41, of Buena Park said he doubts Los Angeles commuters could be counted on to exercise common courtesy. He said there is already far too much wireless chatting going on in supermarkets, restaurants and on freeways.

Another longtime freeway commuter, interpreter Mark McCaffrey, said he started riding the subway downtown when the new Valley link opened in June. Part of what he gave up was the ability to talk on his cell phone during his commute.

But McCaffrey fears that if he were able to use the phone on the subway, he might become one of those annoying people who chat constantly.

“I’m guilty as charged,” McCaffrey said of his attachment to his cell phone. “I wouldn’t want to be a thorn in anyone’s side.”

Stephanie Miller, a UCLA student, fears she will have to endure the conversations of other passengers.

“I don’t want to listen to a bunch of teenagers talking to their friends at the next stop,” said Miller, 20.

MTA officials are not certain how long it will take to outfit the $4.7-billion subway with the infrastructure needed to enable cell phone usage. The MTA board of directors voted in March to ask staff to come up with a plan to make it happen. Although the agency is not certain how much the project will cost, Caldwell said the MTA hopes cellular providers will help pick up the tab.

Cell phone users eventually will win out over cell phone haters, predicted Doug Brown, an officer with Concourse Communications, which is wiring the trains to New York’s airports.

“It’s without a doubt the wave of the future,” Brown said. “You have a captive audience, someone who is there for a while and wants to use their cell phone.”

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Times Tokyo bureau researcher Rie Sasaki contributed to this story.