Google wants to turn NYC’s archaic pay-phone kiosks into useful Wi-Fi hotspots

By Trevor Mogg July 22, 2014

Google has expressed an interest in turning New York City’s public pay-phone kiosks into free Wi-Fi hotspots, it emerged Monday, with the Web giant joining other tech firms at a recent meeting organized by the city’s Department of Information of Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) geared toward exploring the viability of such a plan.

The idea of turning near-obsolete pay-phone kiosks into a useful facility for the connected community was suggested by Mayor Bloomberg in 2012. Two years on and Bloomberg’s successor Bill de Blasio is breathing new life into the project, in May holding a meeting attended by more than 50 companies — including Samsung, IBM, Cisco, and Google, among others — to explore the plan further and invite proposals.

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Those proposals were due in Monday, though it’s not known at this stage which companies have submitted ideas.

The large number of big-name attendees indicates the depth of interest in the project, which presents a range of opportunities for the company chosen to implement its plan.

There are currently around 7,300 public pay-phone kiosks located throughout New York City’s five boroughs, with over half including advertising. Millions of dollars generated annually from those ads would be shared between the city and the company behind the winning bid, officials said.

The city is hoping to see the implementation of 24/7 Wi-Fi hotspots that would provide free Internet access at ad-displaying sites, each with a Wi-Fi range of around 26 meters (85 feet).

Besides retaining the ability to make calls from the kiosks, the DoITT said it would like to see proposals that build other services into the sites, including free local calls, text messaging capabilities, mobile device charging stations, touchscreens that offer local information or facilitate business transactions, and sensors to monitor the immediate environment — an area in which Google has recent experience.

Should Google submit a bid and have it chosen by the DoITT, it would form part of its wider efforts to provide fast and reliable Internet access to communities both in the US and internationally. Besides Project Loon, which aims to bring the Internet to isolated communities around the world via high-flying balloons, the Mountain View company is also continuing with Google Fiber, a project focusing on the provision of ultra-high-speed Internet that currently involves several cities in the U.S.

New York City’s pay-phone kiosks are currently operated by 10 companies through a franchise agreement with the DoITT. This, however, ends in October, motivating city officials to seek out the best way to modernize the facilities.

[via Bloomberg]

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San Francisco launches free Wi-Fi in public spaces, with help from Google

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The city of San Francisco has made good on its year-old promise to bring free Wi-Fi to 31 public spaces, officially launching the service on Wednesday.

The roll out was made possible thanks to a $600,000 donation from Web giant Google, whose head office is located in nearby Mountain View.

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Chicago, New York libraries will soon lend Wi-Fi hotspots to patrons

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Made possible by funding provided by the Knight Foundation, the Chicago Public Library and the New York Public Library will soon start to provide access to Wi-Fi hotspot hardware that can be checked out for use at home. Totaling up to $900,000 in overall funding, the two grants are designed to help low-income families that currently don't have access to broadband Internet. Detailed by The Atlantic's Citylab, the two libraries will also provide educational content and digital skill classes with the funding.
Specifically, the New York Public Library will make the "Check Out the Internet" hotspots available to 10,000 households for an entire year, assuming an additional $500,000 in matching funding is raised. Alternatively, the Chicago Public Library has a much shorter loan time of three weeks and will be loaning out the hardware in six neighborhoods that have broadband adoption rates less than 51 percent. Conceptually, this will allow low income households the ability to utilize resources on the Internet when the library is closed. Both libraries are expected to receive the funding during summer 2014 and will put the two programs in place this year.
Prior to the funding announcement, the New York Public Library launched a much smaller pilot program with just 100 devices spread between four different branches. According to New York Public Library president Tony Marx, information that's being collected from the pilot program will help them launch the larger batch of devices around the city. That data includes where the hotspots are being deployed about the city as well as the length of time that library patrons are spending using the Wi-Fi hotspots.
Speaking briefly about the new hotspot lending program, Marx said "In a world where access to the Internet is necessary for almost any important task -- applying for jobs, doing school work, paying bills -- it is unacceptable that so many of the most vulnerable New Yorkers would be left behind."
Marx continued "Andrew Carnegie believed in making knowledge and information accessible to all, and this new program to loan wi-fi devices continues that important mission, ensuring library materials can be read at home and providing families with the key tools that they need to succeed and open new doors of opportunity."

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Skype plans on providing free Wi-Fi in NYC on New Year’s Eve

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Mentioned in an official blog post on the company site, Skype is setting up free Wi-Fi access many sections of New York City to celebrate the new year. Skype is partnering with Towerstream to accomplish this feat and will provide free Wi-Fi service to anyone in "Times Square, West Village, East Village, South Village, Greenwich Village, NoHo, SoHo, Lowe East Side, Clinton, Chelsea, Union Square, Midtown, Midtown South, Murray Hill, Stuyvesant Park and Turtle Bay" according to the post. The Wi-Fi service will be active for 24 hours from noon on December 31, 2011 to noon on January 1, 2012. Skype is also encouraging anyone celebrating on the streets of New York City to use the Skype video calling function to communicate with relatives, friends or loved ones at midnight.
Users of the free service should look for the 'Skype WiFi' hotspot under the list of possible Wi-Fi connections. If connecting on a computer, Skype recommend the latest version of the Skype software and iPhone or iPod Touch users will need to download the "Skype WiFi" app from the App Store as well. The company is also encouraging Skype users to use the hashtag #freeskypewifi when talking about the success or failure of using the free service when posting on Twitter. Assuming that Skype is successful in blanketing the busy city with free Wi-Fi service, the pressure on the networks of major cellular providers such as AT&T or Verizon should be reduced considerably when attempting to access 3G or 4G service during the celebration.
Earlier this month, Skype announced a similar free Wi-Fi service that provided Internet access at more than 50 airports based in the United States. The promotion lasted for a week between December 21 to December 27 and was designed to provide service to anyone traveling over the holidays. This service was open to anyone on a PC, Mac or iOS device, but anyone on an Android or Blackberry phone was exempt.