This is an ambitious project to cover the whole of New York city and it’s surrounding 5 Boroughs with Free WIFI. It has been under development for a couple of years. The project is basically to convert the old pay phones or phone booths to WIFI Hotspots. The Wifi Hotspots have been made into modern kiosk. The first kiosk came up quite recently in January 2016.
The Kiosks are not only Wifi Hotspots but also have a usb charging station where one could charge his/her device. It has a tablet which allows one to view guides and Maps related to New York city. Not many cities have free WIFI covering all areas. You might have free WIFI in bus stations, airports, restaurants or libraries for that matter. But having free and fast WIFI covering such a large area is quite uncommon.
LinkNYC claims that the project once completed, would be the largest and fastest municipal WIFI network in the world. The Kiosk would allow you to make free calls within United States using the Vonage App which is built in the tablet. It also allows you to access or browse the Internet. Apart from that it also has a 911 Button for Emergency.
It is reported that in a little more than a couple of months from now, New York and it’s boroughs would have around 500 Links or Kiosks and eight years from now, this number would go upto 7,500!
Each Kiosk/ Wifi Hotspot is termed as a Link. So Instead of saying “Find a Wifi Hotspot”, one would say “Find a Link ” 🙂
Ricky Raghavan 