Claiming to be the fastest and largest Free Wi-Fi deployment in the world, New York City this week announced LinkNYC, an initiative the city promises will provide Wi-Fi at speeds of a gigabit. The initiative will replace the city's aging pay phones with Wi-Fi hotspots and device charging stations, with the project funded by bright display ads that will pitch services to passers by.
The stations will also feature a touch-screen interface to access city services, as well free phone calls to anywhere in the United States and easy access to 911 and 311.
"By replacing the aging network of public pay telephones with state-of-the-art Links, the City aims to transform the physical streetscape—and New Yorkers’ access to information—while also creating new local jobs for the development, servicing and maintenance of the structures," states the project website.
According to the project fact sheet, up to 10,000 of these service pylons will be installed across New York City for people to spray paint, pee on, and otherwise abuse for the convenience of locals. The project's press kit is light on technical details -- specifically what standard the service plans to use in order to achieve speeds of 1 Gbps.
Construction will begin early next year and the first pylons should be operational before the end of 2015.