Google rolls out free Wi-Fi service to New York City's Chelsea neighborhood

January 08, 2013

Google is now offering free public Wi-Fi access to New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood in partnership with the Chelsea Improvement Group, a local nonprofit. The project is the largest unified Wi-Fi network in the city. The free Wi-Fi connection is available in public places such as Chelsea Triangle, 14th Street Park and Gansevoort Plaza. The neighborhood spans Gansevoort Street and 19 Street from Eighth Avenue to the West Side Highway. To access the network, you must log in with a Google account. The network will cover the more than 2,000 residents of the public Fulton Houses housing units, stores and other businesses, as well as local schools totaling some 5,000 students. Signal for the service, however, is unlikely to work inside many apartments in the area because of their architecture. Google and city officials hope the service will help attract more technology companies and start-ups in the area, as the cluster of tech firms in Manhattan is now dubbed Silicon Alley. “New York is determined to become the world’s leading digital city, and universal access to high-speed Internet is one the core building blocks of that vision,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2024228/google-rolls-out-free-wi-fi-service-to-new-york-citys-chelsea-neighborhood.html