Uh-oh. Just when it looked like New York City was going to build the nation’s fastest, most extensive free municipal wifi network, reality is starting to rear its ugly head. Critics who’ve taken a close look at the plan say residents of Manhattan will love the service, but everyone else will be sorely disappointed in the difference between the promises and the reality.
We covered the announcement of the project last week with great excitement for its potential. The initial plans included the construction of nearly 10,000 wifi towers across the city. Those towers, it was said, would provide residents and visitors with the ability to access free internet service and to make domestic telephone calls. Even better, it was supposed to be a public-private partnership that would be free to users and would “be built at not cost to taxpayers”. It was said that the entire system could be built for just $200 million and would generate more than $500 million in advertising revenue.
In the words of TheVerge.com, “There was reason to be skeptical of the plan when it was announced last week.” The words “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” come to mind now that we read the skeptics opinions of New York City’s free wifi plan.
The system’s promotors claimed that each of the LinkNYC pillars will provide “gigabit” internet in a 300-foot diameter around the pillar. Critics say that might be true in a line-of-sight environment, but point out that New York City is filled with impenetrable towers built of concrete and steel that will wreak havoc on even the most powerful wifi signals. But even more disturbing is that fact that no wireless devices currently exist that can handle the promised gigabyte speeds promised by promoters.
An analysis conducted by the New York Daily News shows that the actual speed provided by the LinkNYC network may be only 10% of the promised speed. As you might suspect, Manhattan’s Wall Street financial barons and real estate moguls will get blazing fast speeds that most of the city’s residents will be left to dream about. Do you live in Brooklyn? The Bronx? Staten Island? As they say in New York, “Fuggetaboutit.” You’ll get much slower, much less consistent service.
“The mayor’s office told the Daily News that the tiered-speed system is only temporary,” TheVerge.com noted, “but it could take a long time for the system to get up to speed; the first kiosks are expected in late 2015 but the project could take many years to complete.”
That’s hardly the end of the failed fantasies, either. Critics say the city-wide network will be far from city-wide. In many less affluent neighborhoods the kiosks will be so far apart that many homes will fall in gaps between signals and get no internet at all.
The implications are clear: Even if LinkNYC’s speeds lived up to the hype, it will all be for naught if large numbers of city residents remain unserved or underserved.
We can only hope that early awareness of these problems will force the politicians and promotors behind the LinkNYC plan to act quickly and decisively to address these problems before the system gets built.
Because “Fast, free service for the wealthy, no service for the poor” is hardly the kind of campaign slogan that will get Communist Mayor Bill de Blasio re-elected. Not even in New York City.
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