Cell service coming to G train subway tunnels, MTA says

Screen time is about to shoot up for G train riders.

The Crosstown Line could go online later this year.

Riders on the northern half of the G train between Court Square and Hoyt-Schermerhorn will get 5G cell service as early as the fall, MTA officials announced Wednesday.

The MTA also aims to bring internet and phone connectivity to the East River tunnel that carries the 4 and 5 line between Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn by the end of the year, officials said.

It’s the latest step in the transit agency’s yearslong push to install wireless networks along the city’s 418 miles of underground subway tracks. Transit officials reported the full rollout will cost $600 million, which will be covered by the company Boldyn Networks.

Under the agreement with the MTA, Boldyn will keep any revenue made off the wireless network.

The installation of subterranean cell service, which was announced in 2022, has been a slow but gradual process for the MTA and Boldyn.

Officials previously said all the city’s subway tunnels would get wireless connectivity by 2032. But the network now covers just a small fraction of the system that includes the 42nd Street Shuttle between Times Square and Grand Central Terminal, and the Canarsie tunnel used by the L train between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Jessica Mathew, the MTA's senior vice president of capital strategy, did not say during a board meeting on Wednesday whether the agency was on track to meet the 2032 deadline. She said the equipment needed to run internet service in the tunnels would be installed while the agency closes tracks for other construction work.

“Implementation is dependent on Boldyn getting track access for their buildout, which we all know is tough on our subways,” Mathew said. “So we’ve been identifying synergies with capital projects across the system.”

Last summer, the MTA shut down service on sections of the G train to install a modern signal system called communications-based train control on the line. Officials said Boldyn’s contractors installed equipment to launch cell service on the northern half of the line during that outage.

MTA officials on Wednesday said sections of the A and C lines would be next to get cell service, noting internet cables would be installed while the agency upgrades subway signals on the tracks as part of the agency’s upcoming five-year construction plan.

Wireless internet and cell service first came to the subway system in 2011, when the MTA launched Wi-Fi on six subway station platforms. Before then, riders had no way to communicate with the outside world while they remained underground.

Cell service has since been expanded to all 281 underground subway stations.