纽约：全城免费WiFi启动

纽约：全城免费WiFi启动

为对抗电信公司高额收费以及龟速网络，美国纽约今年起将分阶段把昔日的投币公共电话，改造为WiFi热点站，提供比传统电信公司无线网络快得多的网速，更重要的，它还是免费的！

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

kiosk 公用电话亭['kiːɒsk]

municipal 市政的[mjʊ'nɪsɪp(ə)l]

fibre 纤维['faɪbə]

consortium 财团，合伙[kən'sɔːtɪəm]

franchise 特权['fræn(t)ʃaɪz]

thwart 挫败，阻碍[θwɔːt]

阅读即将开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用时间，并对照我们在文章最后给出的参考值来估算您的阅读速度。

First WiFi kiosks set to land on New York’s streets （557words）

By David Crow in New York

------------------------------------------------------

The world’s fastest and largest municipal WiFi network is being rolled out in New York by a consortium of investors including Google, in the latest attempt by the internet company to shake up the US telecoms market.

LinkNYC will provide free-to-use connections with speeds of up to one gigabit per second through a network of 7,500 wireless hotspots that will be located on the sites of old telephone boxes. The speeds on offer will be roughly 20 times faster than the typical broadband service in New York.

The first of two “Link kiosks” will be unveiled on Tuesday on Third Avenue: the nine-foot towers will act as WiFi transmitters for a new superfast fibre network to replace the copper wires that once connected the phone boxes.

Each kiosk will also include a hands-free phone, an Android tablet for web browsing, and two digital screens for displaying advertisements, which will be sold to fund the service.

Customers will be invited to start testing the service later this month, and LinkNYC plans to install a further 500 kiosks by July, at which point the network will be available in all five boroughs of New York.

The consortium of investors behind LinkNYC won the bid to build the service when the city’s phone box franchise was put out to tender to municipal WiFi companies in 2014.

In June last year, the two leading members of the LinkNYC consortium were acquired by Sidewalk Labs, an “urban innovation” company set up by Google, and Dan Doctoroff, the former chief executive of Bloomberg.

The project is part of a broader effort by Google to reshape the US telecoms market, and comes after the company built a superfast fibre network in several cities, including Kansas City and Austin. It has also set up its own mobile phone service, Project Fi.

Qualcomm, the chipmaker, is also a member of LinkNYC, while Vonage, the internet telephone provider, will provide free voice calls to US phone numbers via the network.

Stanley Shor, a city official, said the project was part of mayor Bill de Blasio’s efforts to close the “digital divide” in New York, where about one in four families does not have a broadband connection.

“This will replace the city’s old phone boxes with new structures that offer totally free WiFi, bridging the ‘digital divide’,” Mr Shor said at a briefing on Monday. “People who don’t have internet in their homes will be able to have it all throughout the city.”

Although LinkNYC will not share the personal details of users with advertisers, it plans to use anonymised data to sell targeted advertisements to marketers

The project has the potential to steal business from wireless operators such as Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile US, as customers may decide to use the free network rather than paying their mobile phone carrier for data.

However, Mr Shor said the city had not been lobbied by companies that wanted to block the service, in contrast to other instances where telecoms groups have tried to thwart the creation of municipal internet networks.

The service is intended for customers who want high-speed internet access through their mobile devices while travelling on New York’s streets. However, some people who live close to a kiosk could access the network from inside their apartments, allowing them to dispense with a paid-for internet connection entirely.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1. How about the speed compared with the typical broadband service in New York?

a. very slow speed

b. similar

c. much faster

d. make no odds

2. What were replaced by the WiFi transmitters on Third Avenue?

a. phone boxes

b. towers

c. Control Group

d. news stalls

3. Which one is not included in the new kiosk?

a. a hands-free phone

b. an Android tablet

c. 2 digital screens

d. a camera

4. Who will provide free voice calls to US phone numbers via the network?

a. AT&T

b. Vonage

c. Google

d. T-Mobile US

[1] 答案 c. much faster

解释：wifi提供每秒1GB的网速，是传统网络的20倍左右。

[2] 答案 a. phone boxes

解释：最先设立的这两个接入点将位于第三大道，这两个位置原先放置的是公用电话亭。

[3] 答案 d. a camera

解释：WiFi的接入点还会有免提电话、触摸屏以及收取广告费用的广告展示屏。

[4] 答案 b. Vonage

解释：芯片制造商Vonage将提供免费的网络语音电话。