Can you hear me now?

Commuters can expect more bars in more places when riding Washington D.C.'s metro. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority announced last Friday that they have made deals with a variety of service providers to expand their wireless service.

Four major cell phone companies -- Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, AT&T and T-Mobile -- will build a new wireless infrastructure in the underground rail system during the next four years.

Originally, customers of Verizon - the service provider claiming to be America's largest and most reliable network - were the privileged few who could chat it up with their friends and families while on the metro. With this announcement, the rest of the mobile community can rejoice.

Riding the metro during rush hour, you can see most passengers clutching their blackberry or iPhone, eagerly waiting to get back above ground to check their email or make a call. Now riders can stop playing block breaker and get a head start on that days work!

In addition to the practical benefits of the expanded service, like being able to email your employer if the metro is delayed and you will be late to the staff meeting, the enhanced reception will add some needed abbrevs to the text lexicon, such as:

• otm = on the metro
• stotoabl = single tracking on the orange and blue line

Just so everyone knows how far we've come, watch an ad for the "first cell phone" below: