4 MBTA stations to offer cellphone service

After the failure of an ambitious effort three years ago to provide all MBTA passengers with wireless voice and data service, the agency announced yesterday it is taking a baby step back into the venture by providing cellphone and personal digital assistant service in four key subway stations.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority board of directors approved a 15-year contract with InSite Wireless of Alexandria, Va., to provide service at the Park Street, Downtown Crossing, Government Center, and State Street stations, as well as the tunnels between them and the pedestrian viaducts within each one. The contract calls for the MBTA to receive nearly $4 million in fees, as well as additional payments if -- as both sides hope -- the service is expanded across all subway and trolley lines.

The stations in the first phase are within a half-mile radius of each other and used by a majority of T riders. The wireless service should be operational by the fall.

InSite, which beat out four other firms for the contract, believes all the major voice and data providers, including Cingular and Blackberry, will sign contracts to use its system of underground antennas and fiber-optic cables to reach their subscribers. T-Mobile has provided coverage to its subscribers on the platforms of the four stations since 2003.

''Enhanced communication within the T system is not just a matter of convenience for customers," Daniel A. Grabauskas, state secretary of transportation and chairman of the MBTA board, said in a statement. ''It also has a critical public security aspect to it, as passengers will have increased ability to report safety issues to the appropriate personnel."

The contract also provides the T with a small, but badly needed, source of revenue other than passenger fares. The authority is facing a $16 million deficit this year, which it addressed by cutting some ferry service and removing absentee employees from its payroll, among other moves. Michael H. Mulhern, the authority's general manager, told the T board yesterday at its monthly meeting that, ''As far as this goes, we have solved our problem."

Next fiscal year the T is facing an even larger deficit, driven by stagnant sales tax revenues (a prime funding source), as well as high fuel costs, increasing health insurance premiums, and an expected drop in another source of revenue: fees paid for advertising space within the system. The MBTA's five-year advertising contract is worth $21.6 million, but it expires on June 30, and the authority recently dropped the minimum bid for a new contract to $15.2 million, all but ensuring the new deal will not generate as much revenue.

Jonathan R. Davis, the MBTA's chief financial officer, said in a recent interview that the expected deficit will probably trigger layoffs among administrative personnel.

InSite is installing similar systems in the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, the new Wynn Las Vegas casino, the Minneapolis Convention Center, and between the Milwaukee Convention Center, the Milwaukee Theater, and the city's main sports arena, US Cellular Arena.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com.