Good news this morning for New Yorkers, as they may soon benefit from free Wi-Fi networks in certain parts of the city.
The BBC is reporting that the city of New York is getting ready to introduce public Wi-Fi hotspots that will offer gigabit speeds for free. The city is partnering with the CityBridge consortium to start building the so called LinkNYC kiosks next year with the first ones being operational by the end of 2015.
If free high-speed Wi-Fi sounds a bit too good to be true, it’s because there is one catch: the kiosks will be operating on revenue generated by advertising, though it’s not yet clear who the advertisers will be. One thing's for certain though; the kiosks will need to be in highly populated, rich areas of the city, which means disadvantaged communities are likely to miss out on this opportunity.
As for the gigabit speeds themselves, the project officials say this is aimed at future-proofing NYC, and getting ready for a fast approaching future where the internet of things, and new ultra-high speed applications will require all the bandwidth they can get.
Of course there’s also the issue of digital security to consider and so far this aspect hasn’t been addressed yet. How the city plans to protect the potential hundreds of thousands of users of its public Wi-Fi from cyber attacks will definitely be an issue that will need clarification next year.
What do you think of NYC’s plans? Is high-speed public Wi-Fi something you’d want implemented in your own city? Let us know below.
Source: BBC | Image via Google
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