New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced this week that all of the city's 277 subway stations are going to be wired for cell phone use, according to The New York Times' William Neuman.

"But riders may have to talk fast, because the subway tunnels will not be wired, out of consideration for riders who do not want to be stuck in a subway car full of chattering cellphone users," Neuman writes.

Transit Wireless won the bid to wire the stations - it'll pay the city $46.8 million over 10 years, and will also foot the bill for the network itself, expected to cost $150 to $200 million.

Who's Transit Wireless? Well, according to InformationWeek's Elena Malykhina, it's a consortium "made up telecom and construction companies that include Dianet Communications, Nab Construction, Q-Wireless, and Transit Technologies."

More here from Gothamist ... more here from Silicon Alley Insider ... more here from TechNewsWorld ... and more here from BusinessWeek.