Today, New York City officials announced a pilot program to provide free, unlimited WiFi to the public through public payphone kiosks. Rahul Merchant, the city’s Chief Information and Innovation Officer and Commissioner of the Department of Information, Technology and Telecommunications, noted how offering free broadband access part of the Bloomberg administration’s “efforts to promote greater digital inclusion for New Yorkers.”<\/p>\n
The first location is at West 58th Street and Broadway, near Columbus Circle in Manhattan. The kiosk will say “Free WiFi” on the sides (right now, there are no plans for advertising on the payphone kiosk, but there may be in the future). The other locations in the pilot are:<\/p>\n
30-94 Steinway Street, Astoria, Queens
\n545 Albee Square, Brooklyn
\n2 Smith Street, Brooklyn
\n402 West Broadway, Manhattan
\n458 Seventh Avenue, Manhattan
\n28 West 48th Street, Manhattan
\n410 Madison Avenue, Manhattan
\n1609 Broadway, Manhattan
\n230 West 95th Street, Manhattan<\/p>\n
To access the WiFi on a device, you select the “Free WiFi” option. Then, after you’ve agreed to accept the terms and conditions, you’re taken to the NYCgo.com website, the city’s tourism arm, and then you’ve got free WiFi.<\/p>\n