Community Networks — Brooklyn

When we were talking about free Wifi networks as communoty based networks I immediately thought of all of the free wifi networks I have used while living in NYC these past few years. I thought I would look into who runs the different free networks in NYC and see what other information I could find on the one I use the most in Downtown Brooklyn.

Downtown Brooklyn

I noticed this wifi network when I started at NYU and it has been really helpful when I was low on cellular data. I remember being surprised about how far the wifi stretched around the NYU area and allowed me to access everything I needed to without issues.

When I first googled the free wifi network I found this article Downtown Brooklyn extends free WiFi to NYCHA . I learned in this article that the free network was implemented as a goal of OneNYC to make downtown brooklyn more innovative and make wifi more accessible in public spaces. The article stated in 2016 that the wifi was getting extended to the NYC public housing complex nearby allowing residents to access the wifi from spaces within the complex. I think this is a great way to extend accessibiltiy to wifi.

Other free Wifis

I am often surprised about how often I interact with free wifi networks when I am around different parts of NYC. One of the main ones I interact with pretty frequently is MTA free wifi. I also found out that there are a lot of NYC parks that have hotspots. There is this great resource that shows all the different parks that offer wifi

They sort them by company that runs them like At&T, Attice and Spectrum, and other partners.

OneNYC

I also quickly looked into OneNYC since I was curious after their name came up when I looked into Downtown Brooklyn wifi. Their mission is to

OneNYC 2050 is a strategy to secure our city’s future against the challenges of today and tomorrow. With bold actions to confront our climate crisis, achieve equity, and strengthen our democracy, we are building a strong and fair city. Join us. — OneNYC

I couldn’t find a lot on how many of the wifi networks were created or commissioned by them but I did find an article on their initiative on improving the digital infrastructure. I didn’t understand a lot of it but it seems interesting that NYC is trying to improve their digital infrastructure.

This photo within the article I thought was interesting because it points out the differences in digital infrastructure within the boroughs in NYC. As seen here, Manhattan has a large fiberoptics network and is well covered but the other boroughs barely have any coverage. OneNYC is trying to change that and put more digital infrastructure in the boroughs.

There are a lot of other initiatives on OnNYC page like climate change, equity in education, healthcare and mobility.