New York City officials revealed a new project Monday that aims to replace the city’s 6,400 payphones with a network that will provide residents with free Wi-Fi.
The project, called LinkNYC, has been in development since being introduced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2012, and the city has been running pilots for free hotspots ever since, according to CNET.
NY residents will be able to make phone calls to anywhere in the U.S. for free and look up directions and city services with a touchscreen tablet powered by Google's Android operating system. The hotspots' charging stations will also be available for free, and the city government can use the digital displays to make public service announcements and provide emergency information. The only time the service will be interrupted is in cases where security measures must be taken.
"This will be completely unlimited access," said Colin O'Donnell, chief operating officer of CityBridge's Control Group. "We're going through all this effort to bring massive bandwidth to the streets and we really want to see people use it. So, we're going to bring that connectivity and get out of the way."
These services will be provided in 9.5-foot tall towers called "Links," each of which will come with a 150-foot Wi-Fi radius, Gizmodo reported. All five boroughs will receive the Links, which will first go up in places that already have phones. Officials have also addressed privacy concerns with the hotspots, assuring that the data collected by the Links will be anonymous.
LinkNYC is expected to cost New York $200 million, but the city is also expected to make $500 million with the hotspots over 12 years.
The first 500 Links will be up between late 2015 and early 2016, and thousands more will be built over the next six years, CNET reported.
"LinkNYC will fundamentally transform New York City and set the standard for responsive cities for years to come," Connell said.
