If you happen to live in New York City, then you would surely be pleased as punch to know that the Big Apple is on the receiving end of its very first free public Wi-Fi hub. This particular hub was installed earlier this morning, but there is one particular caveat in which you should look out for – it is not working as at press time – what a bummer! Well, at least this means you will still have to fall back on your regular data plan if you would like to surf the Internet while you are out in the public.
A representative from the Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications claimed that the shiny new LinkNYC kiosk which is located on 3rd Avenue close to 15th Street in Manhattan happens to be in its testing phase at the moment. It is also touted that the Wi-Fi’s Hotspot 2.0 signal strength carries a range of 150 feet, and on paper, it should be on par with that of Google Fiber in terms of speed. Real life performance will obviously vary from user to user, so this is a case of wait-and-see.
NYC intends to install 7,500 of such hubs in the coming 8 years’ time, replacing the old pay phones. In this phased rollout, 3,500 of these hubs should “hit the market”, so to speak, in the next four years, where 499 more should arrive by the time June 2016 rolls around. It has been estimated that a revenue of half a billion dollars should be generated via advertisements on the screens. Gigabit speeds, free USB chargers, a touchscreen with internet access – life does sound good, doesn’t it?