Yay my iPhone works inside some metro stations. I tested the network performance at each station on my way from Ballston to L’enfant Plaza. True to their word, WMATA has completed installation of 850 mhz cell service in major metro stations.
I had signal in all but three stations (filled red), the stations filled green had great signal, and I pulled decent download speeds at all of these stops. The slowest download speed was 618 kbps at McPherson Square. 1400kbps speeds at L’enfant Plaze and Foggy Bottom are just shy of the maximum download speed of the iPhone. All speed tests were conducted from inside the train car. There is no signal in the tracks, unlike with Verizon your signal drops as soon as you enter the tunnel.
Update: I tested a few more stations. Gallery Place, Archives, and Farragut North are indicated on the map. Service inside tunnels is planned to be complete by the end of 2012.
Metrorail riders soon will be able to use four major cell phone providers to make calls or access the Internet from 20 of Metro’s busiest underground stations.
Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, AT&T and T-Mobile began installing hardware at designated Metrorail stations this weekend that will allow Metrorail customers to make calls, send text messages or surf the Web from 20 stations starting Friday, October 16.
During the next two months, the companies will install a wireless network at the following Metrorail stations: Ballston, Bethesda, Columbia Heights, Crystal City, Dupont Circle, Farragut North, Farragut West, Federal Center SW, Foggy Bottom-GWU, Friendship Heights, Gallery Pl-Chinatown, Judiciary Square, L’Enfant Plaza, McPherson Square, Metro Center, Pentagon, Pentagon City, Rosslyn, Smithsonian and Union Station.
Customers at those stations will begin to see large, cabinet-like enclosures that will house the hardware at the ends of station platforms or on mezzanines, in areas that will not impede the flow of customers or impact the safe operation of the Metrorail system. New cables and antennae also will be installed as part of this work, which will take place late at night when the Metrorail system is closed.
This Saturday it was so sunny and pleasant outside we decided to visit the cherry blossoms in DC. We drove to the metro station which was thoroughly packed, when the train pulled up it was packed too, even though there is only one station before us. At each stop more and more people packed in, the crowd was full of murmurs about cherry blossoms.
The metro ride was worth it because the cherry blossoms were beautiful. We were lucky enough to run into a badass peditaxi rider (a bicycle with a two person carriage attached). He took us from the Tidal Basin to the White House in only a few minutes, weaving through cars and once or twice on the wrong side of the road, it was awesome.
This is my second HD YouTube video. I used Path Tracker, an iPhone 3G application to track our movements for over two hours. Below is the raw GPS data from Path Tracker.
Update: Nevermind this game isn’t really that good. Ace Combat is better and also has co-op.
This new Tom Clancy flight game is pretty awesome. Ubisoft obtained the most detailed satellite imagery commercially available from Google’s GeoEye satellite, and combined it with over 50 military aircraft, including experimental ones. The enhanced reality system guides the player to intercept enemies and evade missiles. A demo is available on Xbox Live and features drop in/drop out 4-player co-op of a boring training mission, and one badass mission. Release March 16th, same as Halo Wars.
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