New York City Will Turn Every Payphone Into A Free WiFi Hotspot
New York City Will Turn Every Payphone Into A Free WiFi Hotspot
BY LAUREN C. WILLIAMS POSTED ON NOVEMBER 18, 2014 AT 9:46 AM
New York City announced plans Monday to reconfigure all of the city’s decrepit payphones into WiFi hot spots starting in 2015, a move that reinforces President Obama’s net neutrality proposal: That internet access is a basic right, not a privilege.
The LinkNYC plan replaces the city’s payphones with up to 10,000 standalone towers that offer passersby free WiFi and nationwide calling, and a charging station. The conversion plan has not been approved by the city’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee, a city regulator that ensures city plans comply with laws and regulations.
If approved, City Bridge and a team of New York-based companies, including the city’s biggest payphone operator Titan, will start the digital migration next year.
Twenty percent of New Yorkers don’t have high-speed internet access at home and 11 percent don’t have a computer, according to 2013 Census data. Nationwide, one in four U.S. households don’t have a paid internet subscription, and another 16 percent don’t have Internet access at home, work or school, or on mobile devices, according to Census data. And those Americans without access are overwhelmingly minorities and seniors.
Minorities disproportionately use mobile devices as a primary means to access the Internet. Only 62 percent of African Americans have a broadband Internet connection at home, compared to 87 percent of white households, Pew found. But while only half of African-Americans and Hispanics own smartphones, they’re significantly more likely to use the devices to access the Internet over their white counterparts.
MORE:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/18/3593299/new-york-city-wifi-payphones/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Peeps just have to try it and see.
Mine is a Samsung. Verizon is the Carrier that handles Tracfone here.
