This is huge. Gone will be the days of long, quiet subway rides home at night.

For as long as I can remember (probably longer) TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) riders have been promised cellular service in the underground dead zone areas that many spend a majority of their days commuting in. Well, it looks like the TTC is finally ready to make an announcement on the matter as early as Wednesday.

The RFP was originally between 3 organizations, Bell Mobility, Chicago-based Extenet Systems, and Broadcast Australia Pty Ltd. (BA). According to a proposal on the TTC’s website, it looks like they are putting for the approval to partner up with BA:

“Authorize the award of a contract to Broadcast Australia Pty Ltd. (BA), for the Wireless Network in the Subway System project, for a fixed fee payable to the TTC in the amount of Twenty Five Million Dollars ($25,000,000.00) over a twenty (20) year term. In addition, BA will pay the TTC an additional $8,000.00 (plus applicable taxes) for design review cost, per TTC existing and planned sixty one (61) underground subway stations.”

The estimated completion time is 2014.

Finally, the TTC submission indicates that BA will have to establish their own relationships with wireless carriers and provide at least 60% of Toronto wireless subscribers with service. You can rest assured that ALL carriers will launch this as a free service to get users’ hooked, then adopt a pay per use model, with the possibility of including it as a packaged feature up to a year after launch.

“The successful proponent shall be deemed to have sufficient wireless carriers contracted if it has contracted with a wireless carrier or wireless carriers that have at least 60% of the wireless subscribers within the City of Toronto.”

What are your thoughts on this move? I think it’s a great step forward for the city of Toronto. Weigh in below.

[via TheStar, with excerpts from MobileSyrup]

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