New York City is planning on upgrading 10,000 of its payphones located throughout the city into free WiFi hotpots that will provide internet up to 150 feet from their location, to up to 250 devices per hotpot.
City officials claim these hotpots will offer speeds of up to 20 times the speed of a home connection, and also free domestic calling connected cellphone users within range. These hotspots will also feature mobile charging options as well as city directions.
This is $200+ million venture between the city and companies including Qualcomm and Titan, and will be funded by advertising.
This is a great service to be offered by a city and hopefully will become something more common across the nation once it has been developed and the feedback from citizens start rolling in.
Now (when complete) commuters will be able to pass the time away by watching all of their favorite YouTube videos without having to worry about their over-priced data plans. For example, nothing passes the time better while waiting for the bus than listening to a cow sing about itself:
