Cellphone Cutoff in N.Y. Is Questioned

Cellphone service was disabled inside the four tunnels leading into Manhattan after the terrorist bombings in London, but Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Monday questioned whether the move “makes the most sense.”

Cellphones have been used to detonate explosives in Madrid and elsewhere. But cutting off cell service in tunnels beneath the Hudson and East rivers means that drivers can’t dial 911 in an emergency.

“I don’t know if it makes the most sense,” Bloomberg said. “Cellphones provide a measure of comfort.”

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs area transit hubs, bridges and tunnels, decided Thursday to indefinitely sever power to transmitters providing wireless service in the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, spokesman Tony Ciavolella said Monday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which controls the nation’s largest mass transit system, also suspended mobile phone service in the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens Midtown tunnels after the London attack, but it reinstated service Monday afternoon.

The MTA initially said the service had been shut off at the request of police but later issued a statement saying there had been a miscommunication between the two agencies; an MTA spokesman declined to elaborate.

Police said they didn’t request that cell service be shut off.

In the Madrid explosions on March 11, 2004, alarms in cellphones were set on vibration, which sent electric impulses to the copper detonators connected to the explosives, Spanish authorities said.

Investigators in London have said they believe that four bombs there were set off with timing devices, but they haven’t determined what kind.

The Department of Homeland Security said the decision in New York to cut off cellular service was made without any recommendation by the federal government’s National Communications System, which ensures communications is available during national emergencies.