Guess what, New York City?
Time Warner and Cablevision are bringing wifi to 32 city parks . And by merit of being in New York City, you’re entitled to three whole ten minute sessions a month! After that, you have to pay 99 cents a day. It wasn’t clear how Time Warner and Cablevision plan to track and monitor usage to implement charges.
One city official who helped broker the deal described it as “fine,” which is about a step up from “meh.” Other politicians weren’t so impressed by the sample-sized wi-fi for New Yorkers:
“There should be totally free wireless in the parks,” said City Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan). As head of the Council’s Technology in Government Committee, Brewer has made the fight for free WiFi one of her signature issues.
“This sounds like a joke,” she said when told of the deal. “I don’t understand how this works logistically. How will they track people’s use and charge everyone?”
“It’s pure bait-and-switch,” said Dana Spiegel, head of NYCwireless, a nonprofit group that has helped set up free WiFi at Bryant, Madison Square and a half-dozen other public parks.
“The way people use WiFi in public spaces is not to hop on and hop off after a few minutes,” Spiegel said. “Real people use it for a half hour or hours at a time, and that means the cable companies will end up charging them.”
Tuesday’s announcement didn’t specify when New Yorkers could expect the “free” wi-fi to become available in the city’s parks.
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