10,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots will be installed in New York

In one of the largest megacities of the world, the city of New York, they plan to install 10 thousand hybrid access points to the Network. The word “hybrid” means that these points can also be used for calls to landlines (including 911 and 311), and calls will be free.

Such points will replace payphones, which are still preserved in many places. In addition to calls and access to the network, such points will be equipped with charging stations, where you can recharge the battery at the wrong time of the discharged gadget. All this will be done by LinkNYC.
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As far as one can understand, the company itself puts points for free, but each such point will also be equipped with a screen on which advertising will be displayed. According to the plan, third-party companies will order advertising, and LinkNYC will be able to receive up to $ 500 million in revenue in the first 12 years of operation of the outlets.

In addition, non-commercial access points will be installed, on which there will be no advertising. It will look something like this:



The width of the wireless communication channel, according to the company, is up to 1 Gb / s. This moment, of course, is a bit controversial, because so far ordinary Wi-Fi networks do not support connection at such speeds with ordinary mobile devices. True, the communication standard by the company itself is not specified. Maybe LinkNYC is using some kind of new technology. Or maybe “gigabit internet” in the notion of marketers LinkNYC is just a high-speed connection. A company statement said that “Gigabit Wi-Fi provides approximately 100 times faster connection to the Network than the average access point and 20 times faster connection than the standard connection channel for households. Downloading a two-hour HD movie takes only 30 seconds. ”

If 802.11ac Wi-Fi is used, now this standard is supported by a very limited model range of mobile devices from various manufacturers. Anyway, the initiative is quite interesting.

The first access points from LinkNYC will appear in the second half of 2015.

Via theverge