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TTC safety: Why can't we use our cellphones on Toronto's subways?

After spate of violent incidents on Toronto's subway, users ask: Why can't we use our phones to call for help?

Transit users in Toronto have had unsettling, scary and nerve-racking commutes this year.

The latest violent incident on the TTC led to a 16-year-old's death after Gabriel Magalhaes was stabbed while waiting for a train on a bench at Keele station in Toronto's west end.

Magalhaes is the fourth victim to be killed while using the city’s public transit system since last April.

The tragic incident is sparking renewed demand to install a fully accessible mobile network that can be accessed underground on the subway, so that people have the option to call emergency services if needed.

While free Wi-Fi is available at all subway stations, not all phone networks are accessible.

For the last decade, BAI Communications Inc., which has built network infrastructures around the world, has exclusively owned and operated the service infrastructure in the TTC. That means the physical infrastructure is in place to have network availability, but it’s currently limited to those with Freedom Mobile. The rest of the country's big telecommunication providers — Telus, Bell and Rogers — have refused to sign on.

Toronto city councillor Chris Moise, who sits on the TTC board, told the Toronto Star that those corporations should be “shamed” into providing service, calling the situation “appalling.”

Rosa Addario is the communications manager with OpenMedia, a community organization that works to keep the internet open, affordable and surveillance-free. She says the reason the major telecoms won’t sign on comes down to corporate greed.

“They’re all demanding to have their own networks, but they also refuse to build their network and they refuse to partner,” she tells Yahoo News Canada. “For the longest time, this conversation was about how annoying it was to not have service underground, but now it’s a real safety concern.”

It’s not a complicated issue in the way they would like us to believe.

It’s not unusual for telecom companies to share their networks with each other. With the case of the TTC, Addario explains that BAI doesn’t have roaming agreements with other telecoms, which means they would have to pay extra money to sign on.

“For the amount of time people spend on the TTC, it’s a nominal amount of their overall data and cell usage but it’s still an extra expense for these telcos, so they still say no,” she says.

Addario adds that last year’s Rogers outage in Toronto led to many concerns about not being able to access 911, which is a reality for passengers every time they use the subway.

“All the telecoms need to do is enter into network agreements with BAI and everyone would have service on the TTC,” she says. “It’s not a complicated issue in the way they would like us to believe.”

TORONTO, ON - March 27 - Flowers, notes, and stuffed animals are left outside Keele subway station as part of a memorial in Toronto. The TTC station was the site of a stabbing that took place over the weekend, which resulted in a 16-year-old boy being killed. Lance McMillan/Toronto StarMarch-27-2023        (Lance McMillan/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - March 27 - Flowers, notes, and stuffed animals are left outside Keele subway station as part of a memorial in Toronto. The TTC station was the site of a stabbing that took place over the weekend, which resulted in a 16-year-old boy being killed. Lance McMillan/Toronto StarMarch-27-2023 (Lance McMillan/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Other major cities in Canada appear to have stronger mobile connectivity on their transit systems than Toronto.

In 2013, Montreal announced that Bell, Rogers, TELUS and Vidéotron had partnered to deploy the 4G LTE mobile network across its entire subway service, a venture that was completed in 2020.

While much of Vancouver’s Translink services are above ground, they’ve expanded their underground LTE connectivity for its customers in recent years.