New York Newsday makes the Parks Department's ultimatum to its contractor sound like a firm plan: In May, the city that never sleeps (or unplugs) told its winning bidder for the rights to install Wi-Fi in several major parks that they had to get Central Park unwired by July or lose their contract. They also said that the fees required for the rights would be reduced or removed from future contracts, as that was impeding these rollouts.
Newsday's coverage has no new information, but takes it as a fait accompli that the park will have coverage. They have no quotes from nor mention any attempt to contact the contractor, WiFi Salon, which has had these contracts since Oct. 2004, and has always said they'd use sponsorship to offer free access.
Dana Spiegel of community wireless group nycwireless points out that the article reveals the Bryant Park service cost $18,000 to setup and $1,400 per month to run.
Unless I misunderstand what's happening there, I expect we will see a different headline in August than, "Central Park Wi-Fi up and running." If anyone knows differently, please post in the comments and explain how you know.
What foolish person is going to take their expensive laptop into the confines of Central Park ? The samae in Philly. Who's going out on the Parkway and power up their laptop ? All you need in Philly is someone to pull up, jump out, hit you upside your head and rip the machine from your hands. No thanks. I'll stay inside where there may be free service.
Bill,
I don't know about Philly, but I can tell you that most parks in New York City, especially the larger, more popular ones, are quite safe. In fact, New York City parks and subways are significantly safer than they were even 10-15 years ago. I regularly take my laptop into any of the Wi-Fi parks in NYC, and often carry it with me when I am in Central Park. I have never had a problem, and have not heard of anyone else having any problems with crime in a park here.