You will soon be able to text on the métro
First stations planned to go live in 2014
Montreal’s métro system is on track to have an underground mobile network that will rival those of Asia’s top cities, according to the STM and the consortium building the $50-million infrastructure.
In five to seven years, métro users are to have cellphone reception service aboard trains throughout the 71 kilometres of tunnels and in all métro stations.
“We wanted to get with the beat of the next generation,” Société de transport de Montréal chairman Michel Labrecque said in an interview Wednesday.
Telus will design and oversee the network’s integration for the consortium that includes Bell, Rogers and Videotron.
“Our users can have the same level of experience with our mobile network below ground as they have above ground,” François Gratton, president of Telus Quebec and Atlantic Provinces, said in an interview.
The technologies — 3G, 4G and 4G LTE — will be deployed throughout the métro network, and coverage will be available in trains, tunnels and stations.
“To our knowledge, it is one of the first 4G LTE fully underground deployments” in the world, Gratton said.
The first stations to be outfitted are Place des Arts and St-Laurent. Work begins this year and that sector should be live early in 2014, with reception available in the tunnels connecting the stations, he said.
Work on the wireless network will be done when the métro shuts down for the night and service should not be interrupted, officials said.
The cost of deployment, an estimated $50 million, will be shared equally by the four telecommunications companies.
Once in place, métro users will be able to browse the web, watch videos, download music, make and receive calls, and, of course, text.
STM surveys show that people are increasing moving from voice to text in a bid to keep down noise levels on public transit, Labrecque said. Advertising campaigns will promote that once the mobile network is operational.
In New York City’s subway system, a third party is building the infrastructure for Wi-Fi service in the subway stations. It will then contract access to cellphone and WiFi service to telecommunications providers. That business model has proven problematic in Canada.
In Montreal, a pilot project that offered cellular service along part of the Green Line didn’t fly, Labrecque said.
The STM thought it “too risky” to build the mobile infrastructure itself and wanted to offer access to all telecommunications providers.
Getting Quebec’s Big Four telecommunications companies on the same page “was a big job for us,” he said. “As you know, they are in competition with each other,” Labrecque said.
Wireless is the way of the world, he said. Privately-run subways in Asia build mobile networks into their systems, he noted.
Young Montrealers are increasingly forgoing getting driver’s licences and cars, Labrecque said, “but they all have (smart) phones in their pockets and they need to communicate.”