July 6, 2006 After Delays, Wireless Web Comes to Parks By SEWELL CHAN NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/06/nyregion/06wifi.html?pagewanted=print By the end of August, wireless networks will be established at 18 locations in 10 of New York City's most prominent parks including Central, Prospect and Riverside Parks in a major citywide expansion of free Internet access, according to city officials. The development, to be announced today, would end months of delay for a city project that has faced considerable logistical and technical hurdles since it was announced in June 2003. Wi-Fi Salon, a small start-up company that won the contract for the work in October 2004, said yesterday that Nokia, a Finnish manufacturer of telecommunications devices, had signed on as a sponsor, giving it a well-financed partner that could finally turn the plan into reality. Wi-Fi Salon intends to activate 18 wireless "hot spots" by the end of next month at Battery, Central and Riverside Parks and in Washington and Union Squares in Manhattan; at Prospect Park in Brooklyn; at the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens; and at Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt Parks and Orchard Beach in the Bronx. Eight of the hot spots will be in Central Park and two in Prospect Park. The first of the 18 locations a stretch of Battery Park, from the Battery Gardens restaurant to the Castle Clinton National Monument is to be activated today, with the other 17 to follow, in stages, through the end of next month. At those locations, users with laptops configured for wireless networking will be able to check e-mail, browse the Internet and download files while sitting on a park bench or sipping a coffee at a concession stand, all at no cost. "The expanded Wi-Fi network will give park visitors even more options to enjoy," Adrian Benepe, the parks commissioner, said in a statement. "Park patrons can throw a pitch, score a goal, catch a wave or surf the Internet at some of our city's greatest parks." Park advocates said they were delighted to hear that the parks department and Wi-Fi Salon were getting the project moving. "We're glad that they seem to have gotten their ducks in a row," said Christian DiPalermo, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, an advocacy group that is not involved in the project. "It's long overdue and long awaited by park users." Four years ago, the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation created a Wi-Fi hot spot encompassing the six-acre park in Midtown. It has been a huge success, with use of the network rising each summer since the service began in June 2002. About 250 people now use the network each day during the peak summer months. Following that example, the Alliance for Downtown New York, a business improvement district in Lower Manhattan, set up wireless hot spots at eight sites from 2003 to 2005, including City Hall Park, Bowling Green and the new Wall Street Park. Some cities, including Philadelphia and San Francisco, have begun to explore creating citywide wireless networks. The parks department's own effort, covering some of the city's largest and most heavily used parks, began around the same time but has proceeded in fits and starts. Verizon Communications initially won the contract in April 2004, only to withdraw a month later after concluding that the venture would not be cost-effective. Wi-Fi Salon, a small company started by an Upper East Side entrepreneur, Marshall W. Brown, won the three-year contract in October 2004, agreeing to make quarterly payments of $7,500 totaling $90,000 over three years or 10 percent of gross receipts from advertising and other sources, whichever is greater. Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer of Manhattan, chairwoman of the City Council's Committee on Technology in Government and a major proponent of the project, said that Internet access should be viewed as a public service and that the city's effort to derive revenue from the project was a strategic error. "There's no revenue to be made, and I knew that and said that from the beginning," she said. In an interview yesterday at Battery Park, Mr. Brown, 47, described Nokia's support as critical. "We looked for a long time to find the right partner somebody who not only understood the future of Wi-Fi but was willing to commit the resources and vision to make that happen," he said. At each hot spot, users will encounter an initial Web portal with information about the park and local history and advertisements for Nokia and other sponsors, which could include retail kiosks that do business in the parks. Floris van de Klashorst, a director in the multimedia unit at Nokia's office in White Plains, said he believed that traditional park activities reading newspapers and listening to music were increasingly being done using mobile communications devices, in addition to watching television and sending e-mail. "Wi-Fi in the parks provides an excellent podium for us to showcase these new kinds of applications," he said. Nokia is marketing several portable devices essentially scaled-down computers for casual Internet browsing that can tap into Wi-Fi hot spots. (The most popular "smart phones," including most models of the BlackBerry and the Palm Treo, rely on cellphone networks.) Mr. Brown and Mr. van de Klashorst would not discuss the terms of the sponsorship arrangement, saying it was confidential. Robert L. Garafola, the deputy commissioner for management and budget at the parks department, said that Wi-Fi Salon still needed final approval for the eight sites in Central Park from the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit group that manages the park under a long-term contract that was renewed in April for another eight years. Mr. Garafola said he was optimistic about the project after the repeated delays. "I'm feeling pretty good, but we're going to watch it very closely and hold them to the schedule," he said. Wi-Fi Salon and Nokia said they planned an extensive marketing campaign, but declined to discuss specifics. Warner Johnston, a parks department spokesman, said he believed that if the system worked, word of mouth would be powerful enough. "I have no question in my mind that once this is active in Central Park, word is going to spread like wildfire," he said. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list medianews@twiar.org To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
