NYC finally gets started on those gigabit WiFi kiosks

It’s been a little over a year since New York City officials announced that they will be introducing gigabit WiFi kiosks around the city but we didn’t see any progress beyond that announcement. Until now, that is. With just a few days shy of their deadline of end of 2015, they finally broke ground on the first of the LinkNYC kiosks, although don’t expect to be able to use them immediately, as it’s just laying the foundation for the structures first.

In November 2014, officials revealed plans to install around 10,000 WiFi kiosks around the city that would give free connection to anyone standing within 150 meters of these structures. Not only that, but it will be offering free gigabit internet, so probably no waiting forever for your Instagram feed to upload or to translate the tourist brochure that you picked up, or maybe even to stream an episode of your favorite show, if you can bear standing on the street while watching it.

The service will be free, although we’re not really sure if it will be forever free. The city plans to monetize through advertisements that will be shown on the kiosks. They are expecting that the kiosks will be able to generate around $500 million of revenue over the next 12 years. That should be able to cover their operation costs. Probably.

The kiosks will also be eventually equipped with touch screen monitors so people can do basic things there like view maps or even make phone calls via the Internet. But don’t go rushing to any of them yet, as they expect a couple of weeks before they will be ready to be switched on for public consumption.

VIA: SlashGear