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The Rise of Free Urban Internet (axios.com)

Posted by msmash on from the rising-pattern dept.

Intersection, the Alphabet-backed smart cities startup known for creating free internet kiosks for cities, is pushing to make free internet accessible in as many major cities as possible across the globe. From a report: As more aspects of our daily lives -- from healthcare to communication to travel -- become dependent on internet-connected devices, the concept of providing internet as a public good is becoming more widespread. Intersection is best known for its successful transformation of NYC's 7,500 pay-phones into free internet kiosks that act as hot-spots and advertising space. It's also spreading its programs to cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, and even London. The program is entirely funded by advertising that the company sells on LinkNYC internet kiosks, so less densely-populated cities may be a tougher sell.

6 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. “The Public Good” by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    Sure, and the information flowing through these “free” access points isn’t going to be collected and monetized... right?

    Give me a break. At least be honest about your motivation.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:“The Public Good” by gnick · · Score: 4, Interesting

      the information flowing through these “free” access points isn’t going to be collected and monetized

      Trust your VPN, not your ISP.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    2. Re:“The Public Good” by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2

      Trust your VPN, not your ISP.

      LOL no, you can't trust your VPN either.
      At current, you can't trust the Internet at all. Regardless of how you're connecting to it, always assume at all times that you're being monitored, all traffic logged, analyzed, sniffed at, and scrutinized, for one purpose or another, and that you're constantly under either direct (as in from live hackers) or indirect (as in from a 'bot or bot-net or hacked website) attack. Think of it this way: The Internet may or may not have AIDS, so you're taking a risk consorting with it.

  2. An interesting experiement... by TheZeitgeist · · Score: 2

    ...for a truly 'open-source' internet would be packet travel over wi-fi without ever hitting telco infrastructure. For instance, how far could one relay a packet from their own wi-fi router just bouncing from wifi network to wifi network? Starting in NYC as an example, how far could one daisy-chain WAN jumping? To New Jersey? Florida? California (lol)? Infrastructure is just about deployed enough that a slow, strange, ad-hoc hack-job internet could be built without any telcos or government whatsoever.

    1. Re:An interesting experiement... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Go ahead and do it. I have heard about this pipe dream for so long I fail to understand why it hasn't happened yet. Maybe because it doesn't scale up?

      There are two main problems. One, you have to convince people to serve as repeaters for others, and cooperation is not something most of us are taught. Only jocks get taught the value of cooperation in school, but they're taught to only cooperate with a handful of people who wear the same costume. Two, it's much harder to profit from, so there's no corporate interest. Corporations and other bureaucracies like small numbers of points of control so that they can keep that control.

      There are numerous mesh network projects, and many of them can be used for real purposes, like bot swarms. But getting nationwide coverage is going to be a long, long time coming.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Re:Don't you want Google to run your city? by Desler · · Score: 2

    You’re posting that ironically, right? Babylon Bee is a satire site...