While payphones aren’t nearly as popular as they once used to be – they’re still at strategic places all over New York City and the surrounding boroughs. Alas these days they rarely get much use – however a new project dubbed LinkNYC is looking to change that by converting New York City payphones into Wi-Fi hotspots. The new state-of-the-art wireless technology ‘Links’ will offer free, city-wide Wi-Fi with speeds up to one gigabit/second.
The $200-million project, which was unveiled Monday at City Hall, must still receive approval from several city boards before it can go ahead. If approved, construction of the LinkNYC network will be spearheaded by a consortium known as CityBridge beginning in 2015, and the first of the 9.5-foot-tall Link structures would become operational by year-end. Up to 10,000 Links would be installed across all five of the city’s boroughs.
“By replacing the aging network of public pay telephones with state-of-the-art Links, the City aims to transform the physical streetscape—and New Yorkers’ access to information—while also creating new local jobs for the development, servicing and maintenance of the structures.”
Each Link structure would provide free 24/7 public Wi-Fi, free phone calls anywhere in the U.S., a touchscreen tablet interface to access City services, a free charging station for mobile devices and digital displays for advertising and public service announcements.
The LinkNYC network will be funded completely through advertising revenues collected by CityBridge. The network is estimated to produce more than $500 million in revenue for the City over the first 12 years.