LinkNYC is bringing free Wi-Fi to New York City by converting all the city's barely-used pay phone booths into pretty kiosks with charging stations, free nationwide calling, and an interactive screen for help and directions.

They're bringing a ton of them, in fact. The plan is for 500 to be installed by July, and for at least 4,450 to be in working order by 2020.

In January, the first four of these kiosks went live, and their speed and efficiency astounded their users. 

They're about ten times faster than the average American home internet connection, and about a hundred times than the average public Wi-Fi.

"It means that you can upload pictures in a fraction of a second, you can download a movie before you hop on the train in less than 30 seconds," said Jen Hensley, the General Manager of LinkNYC.

Another aspect of these kiosks that we're entirely excited about? Their charging stations. Our phones die far too often, plunging us into a portal of internet darkness. Once these kiosks are widespread, that problem will be essentially eradicated.

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The kiosks are also, obviously, super helpful to plenty of New Yorkers who don't have access to internet connection in their homes or at work.

Want to check out, in video form, what these sleek kiosks are like? What it'll be like when internet access isn't a privilege or a hard sought commodity, but basically a right for New Yorkers? What will the future look like for NYC's slickest entrepreneurial minds always on the go?

Well, the video below, made by Voice of America, will show you all that and more. Check it out, it's pretty amazing.


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