New York City is saying goodbye to its existing public phone booths with one of the world's largest public Wi-Fi "experiments." The new project, called LinkNYC, replaces the booths with a console that provides free public Wi-Fi (up to gigabit speeds), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The pylon that will be installed will also provide free domestic phone calls, a charging point for mobile phones, and a touch screen that will give you information about city services, directions, etc.
LinkNYC will be funded by the City of New York in partnership with private parties, specifically a consortium of companies, CityBridge. CityBridge includes advertising agencies Titan and Control Group, Qualcomm and hardware manufacturer Comark. Therefore, the city will not be burdened with the cost.
As we can see in the photos, the pillars have screens on the side to display advertisements. From these advertisements, the city of New York is estimated to earn over $500 million in the first 12 years.
It is reported that gigabit Wi-Fi is more than 100 times faster than current public Wi-Fi and more than 20 times faster than the average home Internet in New York. It will take about 30 seconds to download a two-hour HD movie. However, it is not yet explained how these speeds will be achieved and whether new technology will be used.
Construction of the LinkNYC kiosks will begin in 2015, with the first ones set to be delivered to the public by the end of the same year. In total, approximately 10,000 pylons will be installed.
Source: karfitsa.gr
