[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by spyguy

^That's pretty cool.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...l=chi-news-hed

U.S. Cellular move aids rivals
Emergency calls possible in subway

By Jon Van
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 4, 2006

U.S. Cellular paid a lot of money to enable its mobile phone subscribers to make calls from Chicago Transit Authority trains traveling in subway tunnels. But it turns out that customers of some other cell phone companies will get one of those benefits: making emergency calls.

The U.S. Cellular service, launching commercially Friday, will not only keep its customers connected in tunnels, it will also enable people with Verizon Wireless and Sprint phones to make emergency 911 calls because their operating systems are compatible with U.S. Cellular's.

Promoting the safety aspects of cell phone use was a major reason that U.S. Cellular paid $2.9 million to activate its service in Chicago's CTA subway tunnels, John Rooney, chief of the Chicago-based wireless phone carrier, said.

Makes sense, since all of those companies use CDMA (in contrast to Cingular and T-Mobile who use GSM). I wonder why Verizon and Sprint couldnt also make roaming calls from the subway.