What's there to do with unsightly payphone kiosks sprawled across New York City?
Turn them into free WiFi hotspots.
According to GigaOM, the city is testing a pilot program which converted 10 kiosks in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens into the hotspots. The hotspots are free to the public, and as of yet, don't have any ads on them.
According to the report, should the pilot program be successful, more of the city's 13,000 payphones could be converted to hotspots. The company which owns the payphones, Van Wagner Communications, would be in charge of maintenance and other costs.
The locations are as follows:
Brooklyn
- Brooklyn Heights-Cobble Hill: 545 Albee Square and 2 Smith Street
Queens
- Astoria: 30-94 Steinway Street
Manhattan
- SoHo: 402 West Broadway
- Fur-Flower District: 458 Seventh Avenue
- Theater District-Clinton: 28 West 48th Street
- Grand Central-United Nations: 410 Madison Avenue
- Midtown-Clinton: 1609 Broadway and 1790 Broadway
- Upper West Side: 230 West 95th Street
