As New York plans to make cell phones work in subway stations, experts say Americans eventually could be connected everywhere, underground or in the air.
"It's technically feasible, both for airplanes and subways," said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. "It's the social aspect that's really the most intractable."
People fall into two camps, one that defends the right to make calls no matter the inconvenience to others and the other that likes an undisturbed atmosphere, he said. Business people tend to belong to first camp, and leisure travelers to the second, he added.
Welcome or not, cell phones set for subway
One of life’s ironic oases of solitude — the peace people find amid the roar of a New York City subway — could soon be gone.
As New York plans to make cell phones work in subway stations, experts say Americans eventually could be connected everywhere, underground or in the air.
“It’s technically feasible, both for airplanes and subways,” said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. “It’s the social aspect that’s really the most intractable.”
People fall into two camps, one that defends the right to make calls no matter the inconvenience to others and the other that likes an undisturbed atmosphere, he said. Business people tend to belong to first camp, and leisure travelers to the second, he added.
When the Brooklyn subway lines had strikebreakers drive trains in 1918, the result was a disaster.
