New York’s WCBS Channel 2 ran a brief bit on the growing attraction between homeless New Yorkers and LinkNYC, the so-called “payphone of the future” which has begun replacing thousands of New York’s traditional public telephones. LinkNYC units are primarily designed as vehicles for advertising but each device also offers free Internet access via high-speed Wi-Fi and an on-board web browser. Links also offer free VOIP telephone calls, maps, free 911 and 311 calls, and other services.
A few weeks ago on this web site I asked in reference to LinkNYC: “When will the complaints start?” I think the complaints started before WCBS’ brief spot, in which passers-by offer their point of view on the crowded sidewalks and loiterers who assemble around Links. Watch below:
LinkNYC’s official response to the situation seems to have little connection to reality: “We are in conversations with the city about how to ensure that links remain open and accessible for all, and are not monopolized by any individual users.” Citybridge seems to be saying that the few people who spend their days sitting at the Links are preventing others from using them. I don’t think so. The profligate abundance of Link devices has not attracted teeming thousands of New Yorkers standing in line waiting for their chance to get their YouTube fix — not yet, at least. These are not the days of the payphone hog, where a limited quantity of public telephones was vastly outnumbered by the population it served. In those days one commonly encountered individuals who spent hours talking on the phone while others impatiently waited in line. No one is waiting in line to use a Link device. Not yet.
There are many ironies to this situation. Among them is that the traditional payphones which Links replace were often derided as being bad for communities on account of the unsavory elements they reputedly attracted — loiterers among them. The folks spending their days seated at the new Links make yesterday’s payphone hogs look like on-the-move professionals with places to go and people to see. I have seen people sit at Links for hours, watching full-length movies, charging their power-hungry devices, and listening to lengthy playlists. This gives the lie to Citybridge’s preliminary predictions that Links would be used transactionally, for short periods of time.
Another early promise from Citybridge was that by July Links would be available in all 5 boroughs. We are half way through June and it looks like the consortium which comprises Citybridge has a lot of work to do to make good on that promise. With only 4 working Links in the Bronx it appears that additional Link devices are actually being installed along Manhattan’s Third Avenue and Eighth Avenue, the first streets to see Link devices. Today it looks like Links are being jammed everywhere they will fit on these streets, with 4 or 5 devices found within a single city block.
Among the quiet population of Links that do not work are those units which actually did work in the early days of the rollout but which now idly stand with increasingly familiar “coming soon” signage. LinkNYC’s map purports to show where one can find working Links (and non-working ones, should that be your curiosity). But this map seems to have less and less connection to reality as the program expands. One would think that the technology exists to update such a map automatically. Fortunately it is not my job to point out which Links work and which ones do not.
Another early gimmick to promote the gift of LinkNYC was the idea that certain lucky New Yorkers who happened to live within range of a Link device could essentially get free Internet access from home. As seems to be common for the LinkNYC program its praises are sung by those who have never actually used it. The quiet consensus among those who use the free Wi-Fi provided by Links is that when the signal works it comes and goes, delivering choppy throughput and unstable connectivity. Relying on Links for steady Internet access would be like depending on public pay telephones for your communication needs.
And now that we’ve seen small crowds of loiterers flock to some of these Link devices one has to ask if they would really want one of these things right outside their living room window.
Loiterers are drawn to the the Link’s on-board web browser. Compared to the free Wi-Fi this browser seems to be pretty reliable for as long as we are spared the fulsome “HANG TIGHT!” message. This screen seems to address an audience possessed of an utterly insatiable demand for Links:
When you factor in the ability to make anonymous, untraceable calls from Links then what’s not for a loiterer to like? All calls made from Links show the same phony CallerID information, making it impossible for calls made from these devices to be easily traced to their location. Is that practice even legal? This bit of obfuscation was implemented after Links were first introduced. When they first appeared earlier this year every Link showed a unique phone number from a New York City area code. Today every Link sends out the false CallerID of 212-477-3063. Whatever the intention was behind this move there can be no doubt that it makes Links an attractive resource for pranksters, harassers, marketers, and all those who wish to make anonymous, untraceable phone calls. I predict a plague of the 212-477-3063 phone number lighting up CallerID across the country.
In the meantime watch your step. There could be a Links user in your way.
