LinkNYC is Connecting a City

If you live in New York City, you may have seen the LinkNYC hubs on a street corner or by the subway. These technology hubs are spearheaded by CityBridge, a NYC tech-based consortium. These hubs have been replacing outdated payphones and provide users with free wi-fi, a charging station, voice calls, and free access to maps and other services.

Although the project is still in beta, there are 330 hubs and over 250,000 unique users already. The proposed plan shows that there will eventually be over 7,500 hubs throughout all five boroughs, with an eventual $500 million in advertising revenue for the City.

Dave Etherington, the Chief of Strategy for Intersection, spoke recently about how important this technology is:

Cities across the world are dealing with the issue of internet access. In New York, there’s something like 2.5 million people in the city that don’t have access to high-speed internet. We’re part of changing the infrastructure of the city to democratize communications for everyone. We hope, and we’re already seeing it, that Link is becoming something that’s being used by people from every background.

More than just providing these amenities for users, Link plans to further integrate the hubs into the infrastructure of the City. They have already started work on putting sensors in the hubs to track pollution throughout the City. This data will deliver real insights.

He went on to say,

There used to be very one-dimensional context to signs; put it up for four weeks, no editorial, no value proposition, no updates, that’s it. No dynamism. With Link, we hope to not just solve the issue of technical inequity, but help bring about a smarter and more reactive city.

The Link hubs highlight an important aspect of a smart city — the relationship between users and the city itself. When technology is reacting in real time to life around it, it creates a more connected society. If the Link hubs become a resource for data-gathering on pollution and energy consumption, they will be able to provide real-time information for the city of New York, and hopefully other cities in the future.