Cell Phone in NYC Tunnels

Authorities disabled cell phone service from within four tunnels leading into downtown New York City.

They first claimed that the service was disabled at the behest of law enforcement. However, that was not the case. They actually disabled the cell phone service without the blessing of the National Communication System. This is the organization that ensures communication availability during emergencies.

This just seems odd. Even the city's mayor questions the decision. If you want to keep people from planting cell-phone detonated bomb inside the tunnel, then you probably only want to disable incoming calls. But, more importantly, you have absolutely no desire to actually disable emergency cell phone communications originating from within the tunnel.

Cell phone providers have actually wired pico cells inside the tunnels to provide cell phone coverage. So, they could simply provision these base stations to only allow 911 calls through. More generally, they could lock-down these base stations to only allow outgoing calls.

Update: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority restored cell phone service in the two tunnels that it operates. Those two tunnels operated by the Port Authority are still without cell phone service.

Update 2: Cell phone service has been restored in the two tunnels operated by the Port Authority.