Homeless are avid users of free Wi-Fi

NYC program replaces pay phones with kiosks

NEW YORK - An effort to replace obsolete pay phones with Wi-Fi kiosks that offer free web surfing and phone calls has been a hit with panhandlers and the homeless, the least wired people in the city.

The city doesn’t track who’s using the new LinkNYC terminals, but anecdotal evidence suggests many users are living on the streets. On several recent weekdays, people wearing plastic garbage bags or hauling dented shopping carts were hunkered down at terminals.

“It’s free. That’s the best part about it,” said a tall man drinking a beer out of a paper bag as he watched an R. Kelly video at a terminal in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The man, who would give only his street name, Beef Stew, said that besides listening to music he uses the kiosks to charge his phone.

Matthew Kane was sitting in front of a LinkNYC kiosk last week charging his phone and holding a cardboard sign that read, “She Had a Better Lawyer.” The sign was effective: One man gave Kane a $20 bill and another gave him a slice of pizza during the space of a five-minute conversation.

Kane, who said he was staying with acquaintances “here and there,” guessed about half the people he sees using the kiosks are homeless.

“It keeps people connected to the rest of reality,” he said.

The Wi-Fi program is a public-private initiative run by CityBridge, a consortium of tech companies.

The first units were installed in January. There are now about 350, mainly in Manhattan, with plans for 7,500 or more throughout the city.

Two sides of the narrow kiosks are digital billboards that display advertisements. Revenue from the ads pays for the program. A tablet-size screen in front provides fast web access. As with computers in libraries and schools, filters block access to pornography.

There are free domestic calls provided by Vonage, a headphone jack and a USB port for cellphone charging.

People who have their own smartphones and laptops can use the free WiFi broadcast from each kiosk by registering an email address.

The 91⁄2-foot-tall kiosks are intended to be accessed standing up, but users have placed discarded chairs and crates in front of some of them to sit on and use them more comfortably. A man charges his phone at a Wi-Fi kiosk on Broadway at 86th Street in New York. The kiosk is part of a public-private partnership that offers free internet access, phone charging and domestic calls.