On Friday, May 1, New York City’s Downtown Alliance is expected to launch three public Wi-Fi network nodes to give away high-speed wireless Internet access and four more will go live later in May.
New York’s City Hall Park, Bowling Green Park, and Rector Park will be activated later this week. Later this month, nodes will be available in Liberty Plaza Park, Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Part at 55 Water Street and at South Street Seaport.
Vivato is reportedly working with members of NYCWireless to provide a cloud of Wi-Fi connectivity over Central Park. Vivato estimates about four of their outdoor phased array units will cover the entire 843-acre park.
The ‘hotspots’ being turned on this May are built and maintained by wireless networks consulting firm Emenity, which is a spin-off of the non-profit NYC Wireless, a pioneer of open wireless ‘hotspots’ in public spaces throughout the New York region. Emenity, also built a Wi-Fi ‘hotspot’ in Bryant Park on 42nd Street.
Emenity spokesman Anthony Townsend told internetnews.com the rollout of the ‘hotspots’ downtown would create a Wi-Fi enabled zone “anywhere within a five-minute walk in Lower Manhattan.
The Downtown Alliance, is spending about $50,000 to set up the ‘hotspots’ and less than $20,000 a year to keep them running. “They (Emenity) gave us a fantastic deal on this and the benefits are huge for our district. First of all, it’s going to be a wonderful area amenity for downtown residents, workers and visitors,” said Jordan Silbert, Director of Rebuilding Initiatives for the Downtown Alliance.
For Emenity, the Downtown Alliance deal adds a big-name client to its roster for wireless network consulting services. The six-employee firm is avoiding the subscription-based Wi-Fi services — adopted by Starbucks and cafes nationwide — in favor of free public networks that “differentiate real estate space,” Townsend explained.
To install, run and manage a Wi-Fi ‘hotspot’ (a single access point and including bandwidth), Emenity charges less than $20,000 a year, Townsend said, noting that the company was looking at a wider variety of spaces beyond the coffee shops and hotel lobbies.
The Downtown Alliance’s claims it’s the “largest free wireless zone” in the country. On the West Coast, SeattleWireless, Portland’s PersonalTelco and the Bay Area Wireless Users Group have also been promoting free Wi-Fi hot spots for the public. Portland was recently named “the most unwired city” in the nation.
According to the Urban Research Initiative;
“The economic future of our cities will be defined by their capacity to generate, process, and distribute information”. With the emergence of the Internet, the diffusion of personal computers and the advent of telecommunications deregulation, cities face unprecedented requirements to compete as centers of economic activity, culture, and civic activity”.
Here’s a plan to build the unwalled garden. The city of noses.
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