LinkNYC Wi-Fi Hotspots Tested: They Crush Starbucks

The fastest public Wi-Fi we've always seen hit the streets of New York this week, and it torches Starbucks's Google-provided free Wi-Fi. It's an amazing do good for anyone traveling to New York, and potentially an fifty-fifty greater one for New York residents. I went and tested them today.

The first of supposedly 7,500 LinkNYC kiosks started to circulate Wi-Fi yesterday along 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, for about a half-mile to a higher place 14th Street. CityBridge, a Qualcomm-backed consortium, has pledged to build 510 kiosks by July, and 7,500 by 2022. Although, given delays in other New York infrastructure projects, I'd take that second date with a large grain of common salt.

The kiosks are all wired with gigabit cobweb and a Vonage VoIP phone in the front end for free, global calling, all of which is paid for via giant advertising panels on the side. There are likewise ii USB charging ports nether the phone panel, and the phone'due south tablet face can likewise be used for maps and Spider web browsing, LinkNYC says.

For now, the tablets aren't turned on, and the only affair you get is Wi-Fi. Simply the Wi-Fi is really skillful. The most impressive thing is the range. I tested two kiosks, at 20th Street and 16th Street. (Interestingly, the kiosks are frequently installed in pairs beyond the street from each other.) The 20th Street kiosk had a usable range of a picayune less than 200 feet, which is amazing. The 16th Street kiosk was usable to about 125 feet, however pretty impressive for public Wi-Fi.

Logging into the kiosks is simple. You don't demand to create a username and password, although you have to enter your email address for mailings. Once you've entered your email accost, yous have the pick to install a Hotspot two.0 trusted network contour for recent iPhones, which enables a secure auto-login from there on out. I strongly suggest doing so. Anybody else but has to get through the portal page to log in.

The speeds shell other local free Wi-Fi providers. I of the kiosks was simply outside a Starbucks, so I could sit in the Starbucks and compare them. The Starbucks Wi-Fi was clearly capped to near 15Mbps down and 2Mbps up; I got very flat, similar results on repeated Ookla speed tests. The LinkNYC connection averaged 245Mbps down and 209Mbps upward in the same location.

And that Starbucks, which was pretty empty, outpaced other gratis Wi-Fi businesses I tested. In a nearby Dunkin Donuts, the cap was at 10Mbps down and 2Mbps upwards. In a much busier Starbucks, with many people using mobile devices, boilerplate speeds were downward to 7.4Mbps downwards and 0.4Mbps upward as the network was congested.

The LinkNYC kiosk at 20th Street, meanwhile, offered 93Mbps downwardly even 100 feet away. That'south astonishing. Obviously, speeds will slow downwards once there are more than people on the network, simply information technology looks like these kiosks have plenty of headroom.

The range is of import considering it makes LinkNYC far more than useful than it first appears. You lot don't have to exist standing near a pillar to exist continued; y'all tin be in a nearby concern, or (here'south where things get interesting) a nearby habitation. LinkNYC probably won't supersede mobile LTE networks, although its network is dumbo enough in Manhattan that many locals may be able to step downward on their data plans. But if it tin can achieve into apartment building windows, it may offer an alternative for low-income New Yorkers, and others who take felt betrayed as Verizon has failed on its promise to install FiOS citywide. The company has a total privacy policy online, which is pretty standard Internet access provider stuff.

LinkNYC says the offset 510 kiosks will go up tertiary Avenue and 8th Avenue from 14th Street, and also exist placed in "northern Manhattan," the S Bronx, Jamaica Queens, along Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn and near the Staten Island Ferry on the Staten Island side.

Yous can follow the installations on Twitter @linkNYC.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/networking/9635/linknyc-wi-fi-hotspots-tested-they-crush-starbucks

Posted by: lenoxnembee.blogspot.com

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