WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority reached a new agreement with four major cellular carriers on a plan that would make it possible for riders to talk on their phones, send and receive e-mails and texts, and surf the Web throughout the transit system’s 101 miles of tunnels by the end of the decade, The Washington Post reported.

The project was supposed to have been completed three years ago, under a 2008 contract between WMATA and a consortium of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, however, officials said several obstacles prevented the companies from wiring the tunnels, including unforeseen logistical hurdles, a bankruptcy and a 2009 train crash, which forced WMATA to give higher priority to safety-related infrastructure work in the system. For the full story, click here.