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Verizon Pulling Plug on Free Wi-Fi in NYC

Posted by timothy on from the how-much-of-a-loss-is-that-really dept.

Cashen writes "'Verizon Communications Inc. is turning off the free wireless Internet access it beams from New York City telephone booths for DSL subscribers who use laptops away from home or the office.' Full article here. Is it just a coincidence Verizon is expanding its EV-DO in New York at the same time? Guess we have to pay to play now ... The real question is, when is EV-DO coming to Michigan?"

6 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. When one door closes, another one opens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Verizon is apparently giving people wireless modems/routers now, as I'm seeing them popping up all over my neighborhood. Most people don't know enough to secure them, and they're 802.11g, too!

  2. Never trust a company to provide a service by John+Seminal · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The city can provide for free.

    Now before everyone says it costs the city money, lets think about it. At City hall, you have a mayor you must pay anyways, the elected officials. And you have the city workers. So that cost is there regardless of what a city does.

    The added cost, of having someone set up the service, well, would it be more than a company? I don't think so. At least with a city, you won't have a CEO pulling in millions of dollars a year, will you? And with a city, you can protect the workers, they can't get fired. In a company, at the very exact moment a CEO gets a 10 million dollar bonus, he can lay off thousands of people to save the company a few million. Don't that seem a little dumb?

    Cities are the perfect provider for this service. For what a company will charge, a city can provide the service for pennies on the dollar. Just think about the economies of scale, a city getting the service costs reduced because of all the people, it is like buying bulk. It is the best value people can get.

    --

    Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."

    1. Re:Never trust a company to provide a service by 77Punker · · Score: 1, Interesting

      It's not so much the cost that makes it wrong. The government should not be competing with what is potentially a brewing industry. Also, the government should not do it because the government has a tendency to do things wrong. If Verizon was your carrier and they were doing it wrong, you could stop supporting them. If it's the government, you're stuck with it.

    2. Re:Never trust a company to provide a service by Reaperducer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why not do away with pulic libraries? We can let private buisnesses start libraries.

      At one time, private libraries were quite common. Some of the older ones still exist. I don't know why they faded away. Perhaps they just evolved to suit their customers needs and Blockbuster is the modern equivalent.

      --
      -- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
  3. Never trust a slashdotter to provide a service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "The city can provide for free."

    Well let's be blunt here.

    1-They don't call us taxpayers for nothing.

    2-Why should I pay for your* habit?

    *Yes, "your". I doubt you were really thinking of others when you made your suggestion on how "Other People's Money"(OPM) should be spent. Which interestingly enough is the exact mode of thinking most politicians use.

  4. Re:Let 'em do what they want... by djdavetrouble · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In new york city free wifi for dsl customers was a MAJOR incentive to switch to Verizon. I was going to make the switch from roadrunner to verizon on Friday based on the wireless access point directly outside my bedroom window. Thankfuly I didn't have time, because this changes things. These access points are literally all over the place. Sure there are home networks around me, but the verizon access point has great signal!

    --
    music lover since 1969