Welcome to the future of public Wi-Fi. It will soon spread well beyond the City That Never Sleeps, and it’s unlike the isolated free Wi-Fi hot spots in airports, coffee shops and hotels, best known for slow speeds and posing serious risks to your digital security. This is fast, it’s ubiquitous and it’s relatively more secure
The 9.5-foot-tall rectangles, which are replacing the city’s pay phones, feature USB outlets for charging your devices (actual charger not included), city maps, 911 emergency access, and video calls to anywhere in the country. And, of course, wi-fi.
To get the most out of the updated public Wi-Fi in New York and elsewhere, there’s some new lingo to learn: Passpoint, which is sometimes referred to as Hotspot 2.0
The technology allows a Wi-Fi hot spot to work like a cellphone tower. Your phone or laptop’s Wi-Fi connection can seamlessly switch from one hot spot to the next as you move around—no need to repeatedly log in. LinkNYC is a first-of-its-kind communications network that will replace over 7,500 pay phones across the five boroughs with new structures called LinksOn. It means walking out of your apartment and being able to walk for blocks and blocks.
To read the complete article by Joanna Stern in the Wall Street Journal, CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE read an earlier article by Bryan Lufkin
