The New York City pay phone is getting a high-tech replacement next year.

Dubbed “LinkNYC,” a network of devices will provide free wireless Internet throughout much of the five boroughs as well as free domestic calls and the opportunity to video chat from the street.

Mayor Bill de Blasio ’s office announced Monday that the city’s 6,400 pay phones—all coin-operated with an attached handset—will soon be historic relics.

Next year, New Yorkers will start seeing sleek, nearly 10-foot-high structures with 24-hour, 150-foot-radius Wi-Fi, a keypad for phone calls and a tablet touch screen with a handful of applications related to city services.

Beyond phone and Internet services, the Links will display public-service announcements in emergencies and offer a spot for charging cellular devices.

Thousands of the new digital-communication kiosks will be coming to the outer boroughs and neighborhoods across the income spectrum.

“This is going to help us close the digital divide,” said Maya Wiley, counsel to Mr. de Blasio, at a news conference on Monday.

Construction on the devices will begin next year, with roughly 500 set to become fully operational by year’s end. The city is pledging up to 10,000 Links.

For some New Yorkers, the demise of the old-school pay phone is a nonevent.

“If they were just keeping them around for nostalgia’s sake, then pragmatically I think its fine,” said Miriam Dumlao, an East Village-based musician.

“I’m cool with it. Like, I don’t miss my tape player,” she said.

ENLARGE
A man sits by a telephone booth in Greenwich Village in April of 1961. GETTY IMAGES

The change has been long in the making. The city’s franchise contracts for its pay phones—many of which languish, unused—expired in mid-October.

The city has been reviewing proposals from designers and contractors over the past year, pursuing ideas for an upgrade.

The result of that search, Link s reflect a public-private partnership between the mayor’s office and CityBridge, a New York-based consortium of technology, manufacturing and advertising companies.

Officials expect the kiosks will generate more than $500 million over the next 12 years, which will help cover both the construction and ongoing maintenance and operation of the devices. They will be monitored twice weekly for graffiti, officials said.

The project will cost about $200 million, officials said, with the six companies providing the services—including Titan and Qualcomm Inc.—sharing the ad revenue with the city.

No taxpayer money will be used for construction, officials said.

Luke DuBois, an associate professor of integrated digital media at New York University’s engineering school, said public Internet kiosks are a good match for the city’s pedestrian culture, adding that New Yorkers with some downtime will likely toy with the machines.

“I’m sure other cities will follow after this,” he said.

But, Mr. DuBois said, some people might have concerns about their security and privacy around the hubs.

City officials said user information won’t be shared with advertisers—but could be handed over to law-enforcement.

Sen. Kevin Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat who has sponsored a bill seeking to expand broadband access, said Mr. de Blasio’s kiosks are a step in the right direction but don’t go far enough.

“A limited amount of free Wi-Fi…is a step toward closing the technology gap, but…more needs to be done to provide reliable broadband to all,” he said.

Ms. Wiley of the mayor’s office said the Links will be an important start: “It is one big step on a march.”

For anyone nostalgic for a hand-held pay phone, three existing units will be kept in place on the Upper West Side.

19.11.2014 | 738 Aufrufe

Kommentare

Avatar
Sicherheitscode