{"id":1323,"date":"2016-01-02T04:36:30","date_gmt":"2016-01-02T10:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/?p=1323"},"modified":"2016-01-30T03:35:53","modified_gmt":"2016-01-30T09:35:53","slug":"ny-payphones-become-wi-fi-hot-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/02\/ny-payphones-become-wi-fi-hot-spots\/","title":{"rendered":"NY payphones become Wi-Fi hot spots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NewImage-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Operator, won\u2019t you help me replace this call?<\/p>\n

A 9-foot-tall, narrow structure installed this past week on a Manhattan sidewalk is signaling a plan to turn payphones into what\u2019s billed as the world\u2019s biggest and fastest municipal Wi-Fi network.<\/p>\n

The first of at least 7,500 planned hot spots are due to go online early next year, promising superfast and free Wi-Fi service, new street phones with free calling, ports to charge personal phones and a no-cost windfall for the city.<\/p>\n

With some cities nationwide making renewed pushes for public Wi-Fi after an earlier wave of enthusiasm faded, New York officials say their project is democratizing data access while modernizing outmoded street phones.<\/p>\n

For now, the first hot spot is still being tested and sits under a gray cover. But some passers-by like the sound of what\u2019s in store.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always helpful\u201d to have Wi-Fi to reduce the bite that apps and web-surfing take out of cellular data service, which is capped in many consumers\u2019 plans, Jack Thomas said this week while texting near the dormant kiosk.<\/p>\n

But others have qualms about New Yorkers linking their devices to a public network as they stroll down the street, though the city has said data will be encrypted and any information harvested for advertising will be anonymized.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it makes us all more vulnerable to wrongdoers,\u201d Bee Mosca said as she eyed the future hot spot.<\/p>\n

Payphones may seem like telecom relics when 68 percent of Americans own smartphones, according to the Pew Research Center on Internet, Science & Technology. But about 8,200 payphones still dot New York streets.<\/p>\n

Some were pressed into service amid outages after 2012\u2019s Superstorm Sandy, but their numbers and usage have declined overall, and 37 percent of those inspected last year were inoperable.<\/p>\n

The city experimented with providing Wi-Fi from a few payphones in 2012, then hatched the current, eight-year \u201cLinkNYC\u201d plan.<\/p>\n

A consortium of companies, including wireless technology player Qualcomm Inc., is to pay the estimated $200 million installation cost and take half the revenue from the kiosks\u2019 digital advertising, projected at $1 billion over 12 years. The city gets the other half, more than doubling the $17 million a year it gets from payphones now.<\/p>\n

Each hot spot covers about a 150-foot radius with what\u2019s pledged as one-gigabit-per-second service, about 20 times the speed of average home Internet service. Officials have said the service is intended for outdoor use; it\u2019s not clear whether it might extend inside some businesses and homes.<\/p>\n

Though many Americans now carry Internet connectivity in their pockets, the network \u201ccan be a win for users who can save on their data plans, and it can be a win for (cellular) networks if they\u2019re really overtaxed,\u201d said Erik Stallman, general counsel of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a group that advocates for Internet liberties and access.<\/p>\n

Tourists without local cellular service also could benefit, noted John Breyault, a National Consumers League vice president.<\/p>\n

LinkNYC isn\u2019t without opponents: A payphone company has sued the city, saying it created a monopoly for the new consortium. The city has said it believes the arrangement is legal.<\/p>\n

Many U.S. cities strove to cover themselves in Wi-Fi in the early 2000s. But a number of the plans foundered as home access proliferated, usage and ad revenues disappointed and some Internet service providers complained the city networks were unfair competitors.<\/p>\n

But some cities have recently recast and reinvigorated their efforts. Boston is working to expand a \u201cWicked Free WiFi\u201d network with over 170 hot spots, and Los Angeles is encouraging private companies to provide free basic wireless to all homes and businesses, with outdoor coverage as a goal.<\/p>\n

Still, some question whether it\u2019s wise for city governments to get into offering Wi-Fi, rather than leaving it to businesses.<\/p>\n

But \u201cNew York is not a typical city,\u201d said Jeff Kagan, a telecommunications analyst and consultant. <\/p>\n

Photo: AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Operator, won\u2019t you help me replace this call? A 9-foot-tall, narrow structure installed this past week on a Manhattan sidewalk is signaling a plan to turn payphones into what\u2019s billed as the world\u2019s biggest and fastest municipal Wi-Fi network. The first of at least 7,500 planned hot spots are due to go online early next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1466,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions\/1466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}