I have to eat my words of a few days ago, in part: The vendor who has the contract to unwire several New York City parks will finally get Central Park and others lit up. A few days ago, I wrote that I expected a July deadline to pass given the scope of what Wi-Fi Salon had yet to do and their apparent failure since Oct. 2004 to secure sponsors of the scale that would allow them to provide free service in the parks. They've signed up Nokia as the anchor, The New York Times reports, although it sounds like a near thing.
Here's why I say "In part." I always assumed that the Parks Department contract required service that would reach across the entirety of each park. This article says that 18 locations among 10 parks will be activated--eight in Central Park alone--which is a far cry from full coverage would which make mobile devices fully useful rather than just laptops.
The article points to Bryant Park as a success with 250 daily users during summer months.