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Digital signage ad kiosks set to spread Wi-Fi throughout NYC

New York City pay phones are set to get a digital signage upgrade next year with kiosks that will provide wireless Internet access throughout the five boroughs and use digital signage advertising to add to the city's coffers.

November 17, 2014

After a nearly two-year search, New York City pay phones are set to get a digital signage upgrade next year with kiosks that will provide wireless Internet access throughout the five boroughs and use digital signage advertising to add to the city's coffers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office announced today that more than 6,000 pay phones will be replaced by so-called “LinkNYC” devices, kiosks providing 24-hour Wi-Fi within a 150-foot radius, free phone capabilities and streaming digital advertising that city officials anticipate will provide at least $20 million in ad revenue to the city each year.

“This is going to help us close the digital divide,” Maya Wiley, counsel to the mayor, said in the article. “It’s one step on a march.”

Work on the kiosks is set to begin next year. The new LinkNYC kiosks will be deployed through a public-private partnership between the mayor’s office and CityBridge, a New York-based consortium of technology companies, The Journal reported.

(Rendering courtesy of CityBridge.)