By mid-July, the city plans to have 500 such hubs installed throughout the city. When the project is complete, it will include about 7,500 Link kiosks. Each hub will include two USB charging ports, touchscreen web browsing, and two 55-inch ad displays.
The first public Wi-Fi network has gone live across four public hubs in New York. These four hubs are Third Avenue between 15th and 19th Streets. The first LinkNYC hub was installed in December last, which has gone live for New Yorkers on the morning of 21st January to connect to the Internet.
The project is under beta phase right now. According to LinkNYC website, the launch of LinkNYC in beta phase, will give New Yorkers an early opportunity to try out the ultra-fast public Wi-Fi, tablet-based features, like free phone calls, maps and web browsing.
The programme is the part of a city-wide program to replace decommissioned payphones with speedy wireless connectivity, reported The Verge. The Wi-Fi speed is claimed to be the fastest amongst Internet connections available as of now. A Verge test found both upload and download speeds faster than 300 Mbps.
By mid-July, the city plans to have 500 such hubs installed throughout the city. When the project is complete, it will include about 7,500 Link kiosks. Each hub will include two USB charging ports, touchscreen web browsing, and two 55-inch ad displays.
Each gigabit Link is powered by an all-new, purpose-built fiber optic network that will deliver speeds up to 100 times faster than average public Wi-Fi, claims LinkNYC on its website. It further states that CityBridge is investing more than $200 million to build hundreds of miles of new fiber optic cable that will deliver gigabit connectivity to Links in all five boroughs. Each Link will be able to support hundreds of Wi-Fi users simultaneously. In partnership with the City, CityBridge will also bring gigabit service to an indoor public center in each borough for New Yorkers to access educational opportunities and connect to their communities.
Bryan Lufkin of Gizmodo put the network to the test using Ookla’s popular Speedtest app. The public Wi-Fi network benchmarked at 436.37Mbps down and 360.55Mbps up with a ping time of 6ms. The nearby Starbucks (which also offers free Wi-Fi) managed just 7.59Mbps down and an upload speed of 1.60Mbps (ping was 7ms).