Bill aims for wireless parity on Washington subways

Apple Inc.’s iconic iPhone could become more prevalent in official Washington – especially among subway commuters – owing to House passage of an Amtrak funding bill with a provision designed to give rail customers a greater choice of mobile-phone service providers.
Verizon Wireless has a contract with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority dating back to the early 1990s, giving the No. 2 mobile phone carrier – as well as Sprint Nextel Corp. via a CDMA roaming agreement – a competitive advantage over GSM-based carriers AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA Inc. AT&T Mobility is the largest U.S. cellular operator and holds exclusive rights to the iPhone.
The subway wireless measure, championed by House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) with strategic backing from Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), would withhold much-needed capital improvement funding for the Metro subway system if officials fail to expand wireless access for commuters.
As such, WMATA would be required under the House bill to accommodate all mobile-phone carriers and their subscribers in the 20 busiest underground rail station platforms within one year. Unfettered wireless access throughout the entire rail systems would be required within four years.
The Bush administration has threatened to veto the House Amtrak measure, which must be reconciled with a companion Senate bill, for reasons largely unrelated to the subway wireless section itself.
The wireless access changes, if approved, could have commercial and homeland security implications. On the latter front, AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile – like Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel – are part of a government program to provide priority access to key government personnel, first responders and others during emergencies. But at the present time, priority access users of AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile have no connectivity when riding on subway lines running throughout the nation’s capital and suburban areas of Virginia and Maryland.