Letter Audit Report on the Telecommunication Services on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bronx Buses, Phase I

Executive Summary

This Letter Report presents the results of our audit of the installation of Wi-Fi service and Universal Serial Bus (USB) charging ports in the New York City bus system in the Bronx, New York.  The objective of this audit was to determine whether the telecommunication services that have been installed in the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA’s) “new-look” buses in the Bronx enable Wi-Fi and USB charging capabilities and are operating effectively.   This is the fourth in a series of audits of the ongoing installation of Wi-Fi service and USB charging ports in the New York City bus system.

In December 2015, the MTA entered into a contract with Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, in which the MTA granted Verizon Wireless the right to supply and deliver wireless voice and data services for a period of five years on the MTA bus system.   The contract stipulates that Verizon Wireless will provide services, certain hardware, software and other components and data plans in connection with the MTA’s project to purchase, install, and integrate an onboard public Wi-Fi system.    According to the contract’s “Wi-Fi Terms of Service” provision, “the service is provided as a free amenity to New York City Transit Authority (NYCT) customers for entertainment and educational purposes and it’s not intended to be a designated public forum.”  The terms of service provision further states that the service is not supposed to be used for multi-media streaming, continuous data transmission or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, automated machine to machine connections or peer to peer file sharing, voice over internet protocol, or any application that is not made available to customer-users by the NYCT and that uses excessive network capacity.  Further, the service is not intended to be used as a substitute or a back-up for private lines or a dedicated data connection.

In March 2016, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the MTA would add 2,042 new buses to its transportation fleet over a five-year period.  The new buses, which have a distinctive blue-and-gold color scheme (new-look buses), represent a $1.3 billion investment of capital program resources and will replace almost 40 percent of the pre-existing fleet.  The MTA intends that the new buses will include free Wi-Fi hotspots and 35-55 USB charging ports located throughout each bus.   The Governor later stated that the “new state-of-the-art buses will better connect passengers who are on-the-go, [and] create a stronger mass-transit system to bring New York into the future.”

In May 2016, the MTA began putting the first 75 new-look buses, equipped with Wi-Fi service and USB charging ports, into service.   The service began in Queens along four routes; one additional bus was later added, and the 76 buses were in service in Queens by December 2017.  In March 2017, the MTA began putting the first 83 new-look buses equipped with Wi-Fi and USB charging ports into service in the Bronx along the Bx1, Bx2, Bx6, Bx8, Bx9, Bx11, Bx15, Bx17, Bx21, Bx27, Bx31, Bx32, Bx33, Bx35, and Bx46routes.  Eighteen additional new-look buses were rolled out during the course of the audit along five more Bronx routes.

The remaining 1,657 new-look buses have been or will be assigned to various routes throughout the five boroughs from 2018 through 2020.

In addition, in 2016, the MTA began the process of upgrading its pre-existing express buses to include Wi-Fi and USB charging ports.  As of January 2018, the MTA had 1,019 express buses in operation throughout the five boroughs; by mid-October 2017, according to the MTA, all had been retrofitted with the USB charging ports, and 910 had been retrofitted with Wi-Fi.  The MTA also informed us that all express buses were expected to be retrofitted with Wi-Fi and USB charging ports by the end of 2017.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

We found that, overall, the telecommunication services provided by Verizon Wireless are generally operating as intended on the MTA’s Bronx buses.  We tested 101 new-look buses with Wi-Fi and USB capability on 13 routes and at the West Farms Depot in the Bronx.   Our tests showed that the MTA’s Wi Fi network operated effectively on 74 out of the 101 tested buses (73 percent).  On those 74 buses, we were able to connect to the wireless network and browse various websites such as news, entertainment and social media.  We also found that the MTA’s Wi-Fi network appropriately restricted access to multi-media video streaming websites such as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and VuDu.  However, as shown in Table II below, we also found that the Wi-Fi network did not operate effectively on 27 of the 101 new-look buses (27 percent).

We tested the USB ports on the same 101 new-look buses for a total of 4,515 ports.   We found that 4,475 of the 4,515 USB charging ports we tested (99 percent) were working as intended; in those instances, we were able to connect and charge phones utilizing the tested buses’ USB ports.  However, we also found that 40 of the 4,515 USB ports (1 percent) on a total of 15 buses were not operational.

During the course of the audit, we notified MTA officials of any Wi-Fi connectivity or USB charging capability malfunction that we found during our field testing.  The MTA initiated repair orders, and we observed ongoing repair work.  To ensure that the malfunctioning Wi-Fi connectivity and USB charging capabilities were properly repaired and operating, we re-boarded the 39 buses in which we previously found issues and retested the Wi-Fi connectivity and USB charging capability.   In all 39 buses, the retesting showed that the issues were resolved.  In addition, we observed that the MTA has added as part of its routine maintenance bus checklist the Wi-Fi connectivity and USB charging capability.  Thus, the MTA checks the connectivity and charging capabilities daily and the repairs are done as soon as they are found and reported.

Audit Recommendations

We recommend that the MTA and the NYCT continue to periodically perform tests of both the Wi-Fi and charging ports to ensure that their wireless network and USB charging capabilities, once installed, are functioning properly.

Agency Response

In response to the audit, the NYCT stated, “Buses Management agrees with the audit recommendation to ‘periodically perform tests to ensure that their wireless network and USB charging capabilities, once installed, are functioning properly’.”

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the MTA responded, stating, “I have requested additional information on the quality assurance and acceptance process for technology on our buses, and the maintenance approach.  Buses confirmed a quality control process that includes review of the vendor’s work to standards set by the Chief Maintenance Officer’s office. The new maintenance approach includes generating an automated report of buses with issues, which is more proactive than before.”