Free abundant Wi-Fi at HIGH speeds give people living in NYC, the USA's largest market, a reason to spend less on wireless data from Verizon

NYC pay phones get high-tech makeover

New York City will begin this month replacing thousands of pay phones with free Wi-Fi hot spots that will sit atop a 9.5-foot tall box featuring electronic advertising screens and an Android tablet that can be used to place free phone calls.

The $200M project, called LinkNYC, is being run by CityBridge, a joint venture between three tech companies: Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), CIVIQ Smartscapes, and Intersection (which has backing from Alphabet). GOOGLE owns Alphabet....

"Free abundant Wi-Fi at those speeds could give people living in NYC, the country's largest market, a reason to spend less on wireless data services from carriers such as Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T)," said Craig Moffett, senior research analyst at MoffettNathanson.

http://seekingalpha.com/news/3012686-nyc-pay-phones-get-high-tech-makeover

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6 replies (most recent on top)

I remember when vz was putting modems into the payphones many years ago. It wasn't just a plan, they were doing it. They were actually doing it, and well ahead of its time.

Then they just stopped for some reason. Maybe they saw a threat to wireless revenue? At that time though, minutes were more valuable than data, they probably had not even yet reneged on their unlimited data wireless plans.

It seems our current leadership are not so good at forecasting the future as they claim to be.

Sadly, we are the ones who pay.

Free data in NYC? All part of their glorious plan I am sure

This plan was written on paper before the Bell/GTE merger. This was the long term plan for the coin department at Verizon. Remove the coin set and install the data equipment. Because it uses a wire low mac laughed off the idea.

Now low mac is trying to get his cell phone bucket antennas atop every other utility pole.

I am glad NONE of my entertainment dollars fund this irresponsible behavior.

htj, I agree. And what of those newfangled horseless carriages? Just plain nuts, I tell ya.

A fellow Luddite

Public networks suck - they are typically unreliable

What a Joke Lowell will screw this up to

Funded by Google. Not surprised since they already have a wireless service called Project Fi which utilizes a combination of t mobile, Sprint and open WiFi. The writing is on the wall.

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Free abundant Wi-Fi at HIGH speeds give people living in NYC, the USA's largest market, a reason to spend less on wireless data from Verizon

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