NYC's Proposed LinkNYC Would Convert Pay Phones To Wi-Fi Kiosks
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
A proposed initiative called LinkNYC is planned to replace New York City’s aging and outdated pay phones with a system of new Wi-Fi kiosks, according to Forbes Magazine. As part of the plan, the city would replace pay phones with as many as 10,000 free public Wi-Fi kiosks, with speeds of up to a gigabit.
LinkNYC was created through a public-private partnership between the Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), and CityBridge. CityBridge is a consortium of companies, which includes Qualcomm, Titan, Control Group, Comark, Transit Wireless, and Antenna Design. Funded through advertising revenues, the new LinkNYC network will link the city’s five boroughs, and will be established at no cost to taxpayers, ultimately generating more than $500 million in revenue over the next 12 years, according to a LinkNYC press release.
Keeping up with mobile device trends, the conversion of pay phones to Wi-Fi kiosks better serves the needs of NYC’s population and can also provide important information in times of emergency or crisis.
The kiosks are ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) compliant, and provide 24/7, free Internet access; free phone calls anywhere in the U.S.; easy access to 911 and 311; a free mobile charging station; a touchscreen tablet interface with access to information such as city services and directions; and digital displays for advertising and public service announcements.
LinkNYC would be the “fastest and largest free municipal Wi-Fi deployment in the world,” and kiosks would have a connectivity range of about 150 feet and would be able to service 250 devices simultaneously.
If approved by the Franchise and Concession Review Committee of New York City, construction of the LinkNYC network will start next year and the first kiosks will be operational by the end of 2015.
The cost of the kiosks would be offset by advertisements displayed on their sides. Colin O’Donnell, a partner in the New York firm Control Group that is responsible for the design of the kiosk pillars, told Wired: “The real reason why it’s going to work in New York City where it hasn’t elsewhere is because New York is the biggest, most valuable media market in the world.”
Wired explains that the Link ads will be unprecedentedly sophisticated, using technology to develop more relevant, engaging, and contextually-driven advertising to maximize impact. A given kiosk could customize its display for time of day or geolocation-based events.