History
Public telephones and reuse plans
In 1999, thirteen companies signed a contract that legally required them to maintain New York City's payphones for fifteen years.[1] By 2000, the city's tens of thousands of payphones were part of the 2.2 million in the entire United States.[2] Since then, the use of these payphones had been declining with the advent of cell phones.[1] By July 2012, there were 13 000 phones in more than 10,000 individual locations;[1]that number had dropped to 9,133 phones in 7,302 locations by April 2014,[3]at a time when the number of payphones in the United States had decreased more than 75%, to 500,000.[2]The contract with the thirteen payphone operators was set to expire in October 2014, at which time The future of public telephones was unknown.[1][3].
In July 2012, the New York City Government launched a public request for information, asking for comments on the future uses of these payphones.[1] The request for information presented questions such as "What alternative communication services would fill a need?"; affirmative, how?”[1] Through the request for information, the New York City government sought new uses for public telephones, including a combination of "public wireless access points, touch wayfinding panels, information kiosks, charging stations for mobile communications devices, and electronic community bulletin boards",[1]all of which ultimately became features of the kiosks that were included in the proposal LinkNYC.[2][4][5].
In 2013, a year before the payphone contract expired, a competition was held to find ideas on how to repurpose the payphone network.[6]The competition, launched by Michael Bloomberg's government, expanded on the idea of the pilot project. 125 proposals were presented to create a Wi-Fi network, but none of them explained in detail how it would be carried out.[7][8].
Previous Free Wi-Fi Projects
In 2012, the New York Government installed Wi-Fi routers in 10 payphones in the city (seven in Manhattan, two in Brooklyn and one in Queens[9]) as part of a pilot project. Wi-Fi was free and could be used at all times "24/7 (service)").[6][9]The signal was detectable from a radius of around 100 m (about 330 feet). Two of New York's largest advertising companies (Van Wagner and Titan, which together owned more than 9,000 of the city's 12,000 payphones at the time) paid $2,000 per router,[6]without any financial input from the city or taxpayers.[9]Although the payphones that participated in the Wi-Fi pilot project were poorly signposted, the connection they offered was significantly faster than that of other free public Wi-Fi networks available in other areas.[9].
The Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan received free Wi-Fi starting in late 2013.[10]The routers were installed in three phases within a 95-block area between 110th Street (Manhattan), Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue (Manhattan),), 138th Street, and Madison Avenue. Phase 1, from 110th to 120th Street, finished in 2013; Phase 2, from 121st to 126th Street, was expected to be completed in February 2014; and Phase 3, the remaining area, was supposed to be completed by May 2014.[10]The network was estimated to serve 80,000 Harlem residents, 13,000 of them in public housing[10]who would not otherwise have had access to broadband internet at home.[11][12]At the time, it was billed as the largest "free and continuous public Wi-Fi network" from the United States.[10].
Offers
On April 30, 2014, the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DOITT) requested proposals to convert the city's more than 7,000 pay phones into a city-wide Wi-Fi network.[7][8]A new competition was called, the winner of which could receive a 12-year contract to maintain up to 10,000 points communication points.[7][8][13]Communication points would, in principle, have free Wi-Fi service, advertising and free calls to at least 9-1-1 "911 (telephone)") (the emergency service) or 3-1-1&action=edit&redlink=1 "3-1-1 (telephone) (not yet drafted)") (the information telephone number of the city).[2][3].
The contract would obligate the operator or operating consortium to pay the city of New York "$17.5 million or 50% of gross revenues, whichever is greater," each year. Communication points could be up to 3.12 m high, compared to the 2.29 m height of telephone booths; However, the advertising space at these points could only accommodate up to 1.98 m² of ads, or about half of the maximum 3.86 m² of advertising space allowed in existing phone booths.[3] Phone service would still be required at these Links because pay phones are still frequently used: together, New York City's nearly 12,000 pay phones were used 27 million times in 2011, which is equivalent to that each phone is used about 6 times a day.[1].
In November 2014, the tender was awarded to the CityBridge consortium, consisting of Qualcomm, Titan, Control Group and Comark. [2][13][14][15][16]In June 2015, Control Group and Titan announced their merger to form a single company called Intersection. Intersection is led by a group of investors led by Sidewalk Labs, which manages the company as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. focused on solving problems unique to urban environments.[17][18][19] Daniel L. Doctoroff, former CEO of Bloomberg L.P. and former Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Reconstruction of New York, is the CEO of Sidewalk Labs.[20].
Kiosk installation
CityBridge announced it would install about 7,000 kiosks, called "Links," near locations where customers could use the LinkNYC Wi-Fi network. Coverage was planned for the end of 2015, starting with about 500 Links in areas that already have public telephones, and later in other areas.[21] These Links were to be operational by the end of the year.[16] The project would require the installation of 640 km of new communication cables.[4] The LinkNYC project would be carried out in coordination with the presidents of the districts, the business improvement districts, the New York City Council and the neighborhood councils of the city "Borough (New York)").[14]The project is expected to create up to 800 jobs, including between 100 and 150 full-time jobs at CityBridge, as well as 650 technical support positions.[2][14]About LinkNYC plans, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
In December 2014, the network was approved by the New York City Franchise and Concession Review Committee.[22] Installation of two stations on Third Avenue (Manhattan) (at 15th and 17th Streets[23]), began on December 28, 2015,[24]and was followed by other stations on Third Avenue below the street. 58,[25][26]as well as on Eighth Avenue "Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)").[26]After some delays, the first Links went live in January 2016.[5][25][27]In February 2016, the public network was announced.[28]Priority was given to installing LinkNYC kiosks in places like St. George&action=edit&redlink=1 "St. George (Staten Island) (not yet drafted)"), Jamaica "Jamaica (Queens)"), South Bronx and Flatbush Avenue, which they received in late 2016.[28].
The vast majority of the payphones were to be demolished and replaced by Link.[2][25][26][28]However, three[2][4][13] or four[29]payphone banks are planned to be preserved along Eleventh Avenue ("Eleventh Avenue (Manhattan)"), on the Upper West Side, rather than replaced by Link.[2][4][13][29] These payphones are the only fully enclosed payphones left in Manhattan.[29][30]The preservation process includes creating new fully enclosed booths for the site, which is a difficulty because that specific model of payphone is no longer manufactured.[29] The New York City Government and Intersection agreed to preserve these payphones because of their historical value and because they were a relic of the Upper community. West Side, as they had appeared in the 2002 film Phone Booth and the 2010 book "The Lonely Phone Booth".[29].
As of mid-July 2016, the planned deployment of 500 Links across New York City was nearing completion,[27] although installation proceeded at a slower pace.[31] By September 2016, there were 400 Links in three boroughs,[31] most of which were in Manhattan, although there were at least 25 Links in the Bronx and several additional Links in Queens.[32] In 2016, the first two Links were installed in Brooklyn, with plans to install nine more Links in various locations around Brooklyn before the end of the year.[33] Around this time, Staten Island received its first Links, which were installed in New Dorp "New Dorp (Staten Island)." 2016.[25]In July 2017, 920 Links had been installed throughout the city.[34]In January 2018, this figure increased to 1,250, and in September 2018,[35]to 1,600.[36].
Installation of 5G poles
In October 2021, CityBridge submitted designs to the New York City Public Design Commission for the installation of 9.8 m (32 ft) tall poles, capable of transmitting 5G wireless signals, under the Link5G brand.[42]The Public Design Commission initially only approved the construction of Link5G poles in commercial and industrial neighborhoods.[42][43]The first of these poles was installed at the intersection of Hunters Point Avenue and 30th Street in Long Island City, Queens, in March 2022 and was used for testing.[44]As part of an agreement with the city government, more than 2,000 poles were to be installed in areas of the city that lacked reliable Internet service.[41][45] Under the agreement with CityBridge, the city would receive 8% of the first $200 million in benefits from the Link5G project, as well as half of all revenues over 200 million.[41]The first public access pole was installed in Morris Heights (Bronx) in July 2022.[43][46] By the end of the year, CityBridge had installed 26 Link5G poles throughout the city.[47].
A 2023 study by LinkNYC found that while nearly half of residents surveyed were unaware of the poles, those who did were largely supportive of the program.[48] However, as more poles were deployed across the city in 2023, residents expressed concerns about the appearance and height of the Link5G poles; some opponents also cited misinformation related to 5G technology.[49][50][51]Neighborhoods such as the West Village[52][53]and the Upper East Side opposed the Link5G poles.[49][54]On the contrary, municipal officials and businesses supported the installation of the poles.[50] Following a letter from US Representative Jerrold Nadler,[55] the The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled in April 2023 that the poles must undergo environmental and historic preservation reviews.[56][57]All but one of the planned 5G towers on the Upper East Side were canceled in 2024 because they violated historic district regulations.[58].