How Politics and Funding Shape MTA Tech Projects

How Politics and Funding Shape MTA Tech Projects

New Yorkers have wanted cell service underground for years. So why now? Why did the MTA suddenly make "connectivity" one of its headline projects?

This wasn't a tech company idea; it was a timing decision that came out of state politics, capital planning, and money from north of the border.

In 2022, the MTA announced a deal with Boldyn Networks (then called Transit Wireless) to wire all 418 miles of subway tunnels. The company would foot the bill—an estimated $600 million—and make its money back by charging wireless carriers to use the network.

Governor Kathy Hochul's office had been talking up "modernization" as a theme for transit projects, especially after the pandemic gutted ridership. Lawmakers in Albany were pushing the MTA to show visible progress on the system's recovery. What's more visible than better cell service?

This lined up neatly with the MTA's next capital-program window, the planning cycle that decides which big projects get funded every few years. When "connectivity" made it into that lineup, it became official.

The final piece was financing. Boldyn isn't a scrappy startup: it's backed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Alberta Investment Management Corporation, and recently raised about $1.2 billion in debt financing to expand U.S. infrastructure work. That kind of institutional cash made it easy for the MTA to say the project came at "no upfront cost to riders."

So who decided this was the priority? It was a mix of Albany optics and private opportunity. The MTA got a politically safe modernization project requiring no new debt. The governor got a "visible win." And Boldyn got decades of access to public tunnels.

Whether it stays a priority depends on how long those interests stay aligned, and how fast New Yorkers notice when signal finally reaches their line.