NYC To Replace Most of Its Payphones With Free Gigabit WiFi In 2015

mrspoonsi writes: New York City announced today it has picked the companies that will deliver the technology behind its deployment of free, gigabit Wi-Fi to pay phone stations throughout the city. The LinkNYC stations will also include charging outlets, touchscreen displays that interface with city services, and free U.S. calling. It will be funded through advertising. Construction will begin in 2015, and officials expect up to 10,000 stations to be installed before it's done.

Comments

expect verizon and at&t to sue

[alen]

NYC is taking away their data overages money

Re:expect verizon and at&t to sue

[peragrin]

NYC doubles T-mobile bandwidth and cell spots in one shot.

T mobile has wifi calling. Verizon and AT&T do not.

There are still any payphones to replace ?

[Crashmarik]

I haven't seen a payphone on the streets in years.
The last time I saw one was in Penn Station

Re:There are still any payphones to replace ?

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't seen a payphone on the streets in years.
The last time I saw one was in Penn Station

Take your eyes of your iPhone for 30 seconds and yes, Virginia, you too will see a payphone on the street....

Re:There are still any payphones to replace ?

[MightyYar]

The boxes are still there - or at least the pedestals. Here's a picture. They are on every block. They sell ad space on them, so they aren't going to pull them down :)

Re:There are still any payphones to replace ?

[operator_error]

That YouTube video points out each cellphone currently generates $40 - 60K annually in services. Also, it says the most valuable asset that these units offer is the pre-existing infrastructure of power and telecommunication cables. They're not going anywhere, although collecting coins to complete phone calls might not happen much longer.

Gigabit wifi?

[ArchieBunker]

What exactly is gigabit wifi and what devices support it?

Tardis

[badford]

please paint at least one like a Dr. Who Police Call Box

My guess?

[mariox19]

They're doing it to spy on people.

Re:My guess?

[RussR42]

Sorry, it's actually an elaborate plot by Lex Luthor to delay Superman with internet cat videos every time he goes to change.

Municipal WiFi

[sheddd]

Can be a lot cheaper than other ways of spying; Associate a person with wireless MAC's or shudder their Facebook account and you've got NSA class intel, and better location data.

Re:Municipal WiFi

[sheddd]

You make good points... Encryption hopefully works as I've implemented for me :) I went to a wifi radio mfg event for resellers recently and some of the resellers were really concerned that Apple's MAC randomization (which doesn't really work yet) was going to hurt their location tracking abilities... It's not terribly hard to figure out I surf with a device with a certain mac address... and many of these muni wifi systems require you to login... directly, thru google, thru Facebook, etc before you get access... I love free WiFi but I'm cynical, and I think some muni's are doing bad things; I wouldn't be surprised if some are doing automated MITM attacks.

Re:Municipal WiFi

[NotInHere]

Yes, I also hate "free" WiFi where you have to login first, or install some stupid app. It should just simply work without all that.

Re:Municipal WiFi

[nine-times]

Well I meant something specific there, in that there are hacking schemes that consist of setting up public wifi specifically to capture unencrypted traffic. Just for example, if your local coffeeshop has a wifi network called "Coffee WiFi", then I can basically go sit in the coffeeshop with a mobile hotspot and my wifi and create a network with the same name. If I really want to be thorough, I might be able to locate their wireless device and pull the plug, and set the password on my network to be the same as theirs.

With a pretty simple setup, I can capture all the data coming through, but still pass the traffic through to the real sites on the Internet while storing all unencrypted traffic for any information that I might be interested in, as long as it's not using SSL. It's a pretty simple MITM (man-in-the-middle) attack.

Of course, it's possible to have a MITM attack anywhere, but it tends to be substantially more difficult elsewhere. Public WiFi is potentially very easy.

Re:Municipal WiFi

[petermgreen]

Ideally one would use solidly authenticated end to end encryption for everything but that just isn't practical. The best you get is weakly authenticated encryption (ssl/tls) and often you don't even get that.

Given the choice of trusting a typical free wifi deployment (e.g. a radio link that is either totally unencrypted or encrypted with a password that is likely known to any attacker who puts in a moderate ammound of effort) and trusting an established fixed line IP or hosting provider I would consider the latter a much lower risk of having passwords etc stolen.

Of course if you believe you are likely to be tracked by the spooks that's a whole different ballgame.

Re:Wifi what about the poor saps

[iggymanz]

Didn't you get the memo, subsidized phone service for the poor started under Reagon, was expanded under Clinton, and under George W. Bush came to include cell/wireless. google "lifeline" program

Re:Wifi what about the poor saps

[sidthegeek]

You didn't even read the *summary*, did you? The boxes will support free calls to anywhere in the US.

No gadget required. Or eyes. Or mouth...

[denzacar]

http://www.link.nyc/

Key Features

24/7 free Internet access with up to gigabit speeds
Integrated lighting
Digital displays to provide insight-driven and intelligently programmed advertising & public service announcements
Android tablet with touch screen display, directional speaker & microphone
Tactile keypad & Braille lettering, dedicated 911 button, USB charger, headphone jack
Iconic and durable aluminum construction designed and built in NYC
Sleek design and decreased footprint to restore sidewalk space and improve visual continuity