AT&T to Introduce Solar-Powered Charging Stations

Starting Tuesday, 25 solar-powered charging stations will sprout in parks, beaches and other outdoor spaces in the five boroughs, part of a pilot project from the wireless provider in partnership with the city. The stations — 12.5-foot steel poles with three petal-shaped solar panels fanning out on top — can accommodate up to six devices at a time regardless of wireless carrier, with dedicated ports for iPhones, Androids, BlackBerrys and standard USB charging cables.

Designed by a Dumbo-based firm, Pensa, with solar technology from Goal Zero, a mobile solar start-up, they are to remain in place in spots like Union Square Park, Metrotech Plaza and Rockaway Beach for three to four weeks at a time until October. If successful, AT&T could expand to other cities. The project will cost $300,000 to $500,000.

“We view this as a commitment to being a part of the New York community as a corporate citizen but also as a way for New Yorkers to continue to engage with their technology as they continue to consume more and more data,” said Marissa Shorenstein, president of AT&T’s New York division.

It is also good for the company’s bottom line. The city has more mobile customers than in any other market, and executives, who have promoted use of their network by providing free wireless in subways and at parks and cultural events, realized there was a need for more frequent charging.

And it is the biggest area of growth for the major telecommunications companies, said Eddie Hold, vice president of the Connected Intelligence unit at NPD Group, a market research firm.

“People are making less phone calls than they’ve made before and more importantly the newer generation of people are really not making many phone calls,” he said. “To make money out of data services the telecom companies need to convince you to connect as many devices as possible. The more you connect, the more data you use, the more money they make.”

The spark for the project came after Hurricane Sandy, when AT&T supplied diesel generators and cell towers on wheels to hard-hit neighborhoods in the five boroughs.

Working with Goal Zero, which makes portable solar chargers, and Pensa, which had been experimenting with creating stationary street chargers, the company won approval this spring from city Parks Department officials to test them. They will rotate locations — including Orchard Beach in the Bronx, Governors Island, Pier 59 in Hudson River Park, Coney Island, the Staten Island Zoo and several cultural events.

In creating and testing the stations, said Chris Abbruzzese, vice president for marketing at Goal Zero, they found that consumers are aware of exactly how much of a charge they need to power a phone or tablet for, say, a commute home. Three 15-watt panels and a 168-watt-hour lithium ion battery pack can keep the stations operating through the night or five days without sunshine. The stations will allow a user to fill a smartphone in two hours, or grab a 30 percent charge in 30 minutes.

30 More New York Subway Stations Get Cellphone Service

But more than a century after the founding of New York City’s underground subway, technological progress has layered a new din over the relative tranquillity of traveling preachers, fussy children and mariachi bands with loose change in their hats.

New Yorkers on cellphones.

On Thursday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that 30 more underground stations would have cellphone service, bringing the total to 36, all in Manhattan. At some of the city’s busiest hubs, including Times Square and Rockefeller Center, riders will be able to make and receive calls, send text messages, and access Wi-Fi. Mr. Cuomo said the change would also bolster security, allowing travelers to call 911 in an emergency.

Another consequence of the improvements, though, was discussed little: With many of the newly connected stations bunched closely together, officials said that riders might be able to find cellphone signals not just on platforms but on moving trains themselves.

“It’s an added bonus,” said Jared Leavitt, a spokesman for Transit Wireless, the company behind the project. “It’s all just radio waves bouncing around.”

A handful of trial rides on Thursday yielded mixed results. While signals were often spotty, some riders were able to complete calls and exchange text messages on trains, particularly along the No. 1 train line between 14th Street and 59th Street — where all stops but one, 34th Street, have been brought online.

Even among the offending chatterers, there was ambivalence about the prospect of onboard calls.

“If you don’t get reception, that gives you peace of mind,” Leo Bruce, 44, from Maspeth, Queens, said as he waited for a train at 18th Street.

But when it arrived, Mr. Bruce tested the new system, placing a call as the doors closed. “Hey, how you doing, hon?” he shouted into the phone. “You going to be there by 2:30?”

About a dozen passengers turned toward him, displeased, as the train hurtled toward 14th Street.

On an uptown train, Neicy Castro, 21, from Yonkers, said that she could already sustain short phone conversations on sections of the underground No. 1.

“I don’t like being bothered sometimes,” she said, as a text message reached her phone between 23rd and 28th Streets. But she always answers, she added.

Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, noted that many IRT stations, including much of the Lexington Avenue line, were not very deep, allowing some riders to find a signal from above ground long before the networks were established at the stations.

Though officials have discussed plans for extending phone coverage into tunnels, the idea is not included in the existing agreement between Transit Wireless and the transportation authority. AT&T and T-Mobile USA customers can already use their phones at the 36 stations; Verizon and Sprint are expected to join by the end of the year, officials said.

Warren Sackman, 26, from the Upper West Side, said that cellphone service of any sort threatened perhaps the city’s most relied-upon excuse: attributing a missed call to being underground. He lamented, too, that a phone call from a platform or train “takes away from the social interaction” with other riders.

“I’m not really attached to my cellphone,” he said, looking up from his phone, where he had moments earlier been thumbing through pictures.

At Times Square, Juan Castillo, 44, who plays Andean and classical music on his guitar and flute for passing travelers, acknowledged that increased phone use in the system had made it more difficult to draw a crowd. But he remained optimistic.

“There are so many people in New York,” he said. “There’s still people who pay attention.”