New York City getting free Wi-Fi via special kiosks

PanARMENIAN.Net - The spread of mobile phones across America has led to a disappearance of public pay telephones. In fact, in New York City right now, workers are removing pay phones from the city’s streets, the Voice of America reports.

But, pay phones are being replaced by something most people will find more useful: free Wi-Fi kiosks. The LinkNYC program is expected to install 7500 kiosks, or Links, throughout the city over the next few years. The system is in beta testing right now.

CityBridge is providing the kiosks. It is an alliance of three companies Qualcomm, Intersection and CIVIQ Smartscapes. Intersection is owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

New York City will install and maintain them. It will pay for the program, and expects to profit from the Links, through advertising, VoA says.

Each Link has two high-definition screens to display advertisements and public service announcements. The kiosks also provide high-speed Wi-Fi Internet access, tablets with Internet access, phone calling within the U.S., emergency phone calls, and USB charging ports. LinkNYC says Wi-Fi will cover an area of 45 meters around the kiosk.

Wi-Fi speeds are 100 times faster than home networks, according to LinkNYC. Users have been impressed with the speed:

In addition to speed, LinkNYC Wi-Fi offers security. Each kiosk offers two types of Wi-Fi networks, secured and unsecured. By registering with an email account, a user can get a key to connect to an encrypted Wi-Fi network.