smartercities:

New York starts turning payphones into free Wi-fi hotspots
The hotspots are initially coming to ten payphones in three of the boroughs and will be open to the public to access for free. You can see a list of sites&nbsp;here. Users just agree to the terms, visit the city&rsquo;s tourism website and then they&rsquo;re up and running. Currently, there are no ads on the service, but there could be in the future.
The effort is part of the city&rsquo;s larger goal of providing more digital inclusion for residents. And it&rsquo;s also aimed at helping figure out the&nbsp;future of the city&rsquo;s payphones, which are a source of complaints from many residents because they attract crime or are just plain ugly.
The payphones have been outfitted with &ldquo;military grade&rdquo; antennas, that provide service up to 300 feet away. The $2,000 installation is being provided for free by&nbsp;Van Wagner Communications, which owns many of the city&rsquo;s payphones. The plan is to eventually spread the Wi-Fi hotspots to more of the city&rsquo;s 13,000 payphones with the maintenance and ongoing costs paid by the payphone companies.
D&rsquo;oh!



here&amp;#8217;s a great idea.