The Best and Worst Subway Stations for Wi-Fi Access in NYC

New Yorkers know that the most important text, life-changing email, and cutest damn puppy video you’ll ever see will inevitably arrive while standing on an overcrowded subway platform some 80ft below ground. Of course you’ll get the notification, but, sigh, the email will never load, your response won’t send, and that cute puppy will be as frozen as the city this past weekend. Luckily, MTA is trying to make that better by increasing Wi-Fi access to all 279 underground subway stops in the city. And while not every stop has access yet, Global Wireless Solutions has tested out the Wi-Fi already in place, plus the service of major phone carriers, to rank the best performing stations.

According the study, the top stations for service speed, strength, and reliability are 103rd St and 23rd St on the 1 line, 110th St on the 2/3 line, and 96th St and 110th St on the 4/6 line. Here, you can send as many tweets as your heart desires, but don’t expect retweets from your friends who commute from the worst ranking stations. These poorly connected stops include Spring St on the A/C/E line, Prince St on the R/W line, Houston St on the 1/2/3 line, World Trade Center on the E line, and Canal St at the J/W platform.

If you’re desperate to mindlessly scan social media during your commute, hop on the 4/6 train, as the survey noted this line is the most data ready and has the highest social media performance. It’s worth pointing out that performance from Wi-Fi and cell phone carriers is up across the board, but until things really get better, we can thank the tech gods above for the new Netflix download feature.

Sign up here for our daily NYC email and be the first to get all the food/drink/fun New York has to offer.