Last week, the city unveiled the first few of its upcoming 7,500 LinkNYC Wi-Fi kiosks. Two of the new monolithic “links,” as they are called, now stand on Third Ave., at E. 17th and 15th Sts.
Nearly 10 feet tall, with gigabit speed and a 150-foot range, they will offer charging stations, a touch screen that provides maps and information about city services and a speaker phone that will let users make domestic calls.
They’re not fully functional yet, though, but the Wi-Fi connection reportedly will go live within the next two weeks. A “tablet component” will be added next month so that people can make phone calls and do Internet searches.
The kiosks are planned to replace 6,000 street pay phones. Crain’s reported that the network of links will cost $200 million to set up, but will rake in $500 million in ad revenue over the next dozen years.
By June, according to Crain’s, it’s expected that 500 more kiosks will be installed citywide. Within the next eight years, the city will be blanketed with 7,500 links.
Hopefully, they will be kept in good working order, unlike the city’s payphones, most of which seem to be broken whenever you need to use one!
