LinkNYC is an infrastructure project providing free Wi-Fi service in New York City. The office of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the plan on November 17, 2014, and the installation of the first kiosks, or "Links," started in late 2015. The Links replace the city's network of 9,000 to 13,000 payphones, a contract for which expired in October 2014. The LinkNYC kiosks were devised after the government of New York City held several competitions to replace the payphone system. The most recent competition, in 2014, resulted in the contract being awarded to the CityBridge consortium, which comprises Qualcomm; Titan and Control Group, which now make up Intersection; and Comark.
All of the Links feature two high-definition displays on their sides; Android tablet computers for accessing city maps, directions, and services, and making video calls; two free USB charging stations for smartphones; and a phone allowing free calls to all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The Links also provide the ability to use calling cards to make international calls, and each Link has one button to call 9-1-1 directly. CityBridge has also installed poles under the Link5G brand, which provide both Wi-Fi and 5G service.
The project brings free, encrypted, gigabit wireless internet coverage to the five boroughs by converting old payphones into Wi-Fi hotspots where free phone calls could also be made. , there are 1,869 Links citywide; eventually, 7,500 Links are planned to be installed in the New York metropolitan area, making the system the world's fastest and most expansive. Intersection has also installed InLinks in cities across the UK. The Links are seen as a model for future city builds as part of smart city data pools and infrastructure.
Since the Links' deployment, there have been several concerns about the kiosks' features. Privacy advocates have stated that the data of LinkNYC users can be collected and used to track users' movements throughout the city. There are also concerns with cybercriminals possibly hijacking the Links, or renaming their personal wireless networks to the same name as LinkNYC's network, in order to steal LinkNYC users' data. Until 2016, the tablets of the Links could be used to browse the Internet, but they were disabled due to concerns arose about the Link tablets' browsers being used for illicit purposes. The Link5G poles were installed starting in 2022.
History
Payphones and plans for reuse
In 1999, 13 companies signed a contract that legally obligated them to maintain New York City's payphones for 15 years. In 2000, the city's tens of thousands of payphones were among the 2.2 million payphones spread across the United States. Since then, these payphones' use had been declining with the advent of cellphones. , there were 13,000 phones in over 10,000 individual locations; that number had dropped to 9,133 phones in 7,302 locations by April 2014, at a time when the number of payphones in the United States had declined more than 75 percent, to 500,000. The contract with the 13 payphone operators was set to expire in October 2014, after which time the payphones' futures were unknown.
In July 2012, the New York City government released a public request for information, asking for comments about the future uses for these payphones. The RFI presented questions such as "What alternative communications amenities would fill a need?"; "If retained, should the current designs of sidewalk payphone enclosures be substantially revised?"; and "Should the current number of payphones on City sidewalks change, and if so, how?". Through the RFI, the New York City government sought new uses for the payphones, including a combination of "public wireless hotspots, touch-screen wayfinding panels, information kiosks, charging stations for mobile communications devices, [and] electronic community bulletin boards," all of which eventually became the features of the kiosks that were included in the LinkNYC proposal.
In 2013, a year before the payphone contract was set to expire, there was a competition that sought ideas to further repurpose the network of payphones. The competition, held by the administration of Michael Bloomberg, expanded the idea of the pilot project. There were 125 responses that suggested a Wi-Fi network, but none of these responses elaborated on how that would be accomplished.
Previous free Wi-Fi projects In 2012, the government of New York City installed Wi-Fi routers at 10 payphones in the city (seven in Manhattan, two in Brooklyn, and one in Queens) as part of a pilot project. The Wi-Fi was free of charge and available for use at all times. The Wi-Fi signal was detectable from a radius of a few hundred feet (about 100m). Two of New York City's largest advertising companies—Van Wagner and Titan, who collectively owned more than 9,000 of New York City's 12,000 payphones at the time—paid $2,000 per router, with no monetary input from either the city or taxpayers. While the payphones participating in the Wi-Fi pilot project were poorly marked, the Wi-Fi offered at these payphones was significantly faster than some of the other free public Wi-Fi networks offered elsewhere.
The Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem received free Wi-Fi starting in late 2013. Routers were installed in three phases within a 95-block area between 110th Street, Frederick Douglass Boulevard, 138th Street, and Madison Avenue. Phase 1, from 110th to 120th Streets, finished in 2013; Phase 2, from 121st to 126th Street, was expected to be complete in February 2014; and Phase 3, the remaining area, was supposed to be finished by May 2014. The network was estimated to serve 80,000 Harlemites, including 13,000 in public housing projects who may have otherwise not had broadband internet access at home. At the time, it was dubbed the United States' most expansive "continuous free public Wi-Fi network."
Bids
On April 30, 2014, the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DOITT) requested proposals for how to convert the city's over 7,000 payphones into a citywide Wi-Fi network. A new competition was held, with the winner standing to receive a 12-year contract to maintain up to 10,000 communication points. The communication points would tentatively have free Wi-Fi service, advertising, and free calls to at least 9-1-1 (the emergency service) or 3-1-1 (the city information hotline).
The contract would require the operator, or the operating consortium, to pay "$17.5 million or 50 percent of gross revenues, whichever is greater" to the City of New York every year. The communication points could be up to tall, compared to the height of the phone booths; however, the advertising space on these points would only be allowed to accommodate up to of advertisements, or roughly half the maximum of of the advertising space allowed on existing phone booths. There would still need to be phone service at these Links because the payphones are still used often: collectively, all of New York City's nearly 12,000 payphones were used 27 million times in 2011, amounting to each phone being used about six times per day.
In November 2014, the bid was awarded to the consortium CityBridge, which consists of Qualcomm, Titan, Control Group, and Comark. In June 2015, Control Group and Titan announced that they would merge into one company called Intersection. Intersection is being led by a Sidewalk Labs-led group of investors who operate the company as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. that focuses on solving problems unique to urban environments. Daniel L. Doctoroff, the former CEO of Bloomberg L.P. and former New York City Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding, is the CEO of Sidewalk Labs.
Installation of kiosks
Initial kiosks
CityBridge announced that it would be setting up about 7,000 kiosks, called "Links," near where guests could use the LinkNYC Wi-Fi. Coverage was set to be up by late 2015, starting with about 500 Links in areas that already have payphones, and later to other areas. These Links were to be placed online by the end of the year. The project would require the installation of of new communication cables. The Links would be built in coordination with borough presidents, business improvement districts, the New York City Council, and New York City community boards. The project was to create up to 800 jobs, including 100 to 150 full-time jobs at CityBridge as well as 650 technical support positions. Of the LinkNYC plans, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said,
In December 2014, the network was approved by New York City's Franchise and Concession Review Committee. Installation of two stations on Third Avenue—at 15th and 17th Streets—began on December 28, 2015, followed by other Links on Third Avenue below 58th Street, as well as on Eighth Avenue. After some delays, the first Links went online in January 2016. The public network was announced in February 2016. Locations like St. George, Jamaica, South Bronx, and Flatbush Avenue were prioritized for LinkNYC kiosk installations, with these places receiving Links by the end of 2016.
The vast majority of the payphones were to be demolished and replaced with Links. However, several payphones along West End Avenue on the Upper West Side were preserved rather than being replaced with Links. These payphones are the only remaining fully enclosed payphones in Manhattan. The preservation process includes creating new fully enclosed booths for the site, which is a difficulty because that specific model of phone booth is no longer manufactured. The New York City government and Intersection agreed to preserve these payphones because of their historical value, and because they were a relic of the Upper West Side community, having been featured in the 2002 movie Phone Booth and the 2010 book "The Lonely Phone Booth."
Expansion and issues By mid-July 2016, the planned roll-out of 500 hubs throughout New York City was to occur, though the actual installation proceeded at a slower rate. , there were 400 hubs in three boroughs, most of which were in Manhattan, although there were at least 25 hubs in the Bronx and several additional hubs in Queens. In November 2016, the first two Links were installed in Brooklyn, with plans to install nine more Links in various places around Brooklyn before year's end. Around this time, Staten Island received its first Links, which were installed in New Dorp. The Links were being installed at an average pace of ten per day throughout the boroughs with a projected goal of 500 hubs by the end of 2016. , there were 920 Links installed across the city. This number had increased to 1,250 by January 2018, and to 1,600 by September 2018.
As originally planned, there would be 4,550 hubs by July 2019 and 7,500 hubs by 2024, which would make LinkNYC the largest and fastest public, government-operated Wi-Fi network in the world. Slightly more than half, or 52 percent, of the hubs would be in Manhattan and the rest would be in the outer boroughs. There would be capacity for up to 10,000 Links within the network, as per the contract. The total cost for installation is estimated at more than $200 million. The eventual network includes 736 Links in the Bronx, 361 of which will have advertising and fast network speeds; as well as over 2,500 in Manhattan, most with advertising and fast network speeds. By December 2019, only 1,774 LinkNYC kiosks had been installed across the city; the kiosks were largely concentrated in wealthy neighborhoods Manhattan, although Harlem, the South Bronx, and Queens also had several kiosks.