NYC Cutting Internet Access At Wi-Fi Kiosks

(RTTNews) - Due to wide misuse of the LinkNYC internet kiosks in New York, officials have decided to cut off the browsing facility. However, free Wi-Fi and phone calls can be accessed from the charging stations. There are 400 Internet kiosks at the city funded by Google's parent company Alphabet.

There have been complaints that the Wi-Fi kiosks were used as living rooms by vagrants, thus preventing others from using them. Residents and businesses around the kiosks were frustrated as some used the tablets to browse porn sites and some others certain inappropriate things.

The kiosks were launched eight months back on an ambitious plan to link the city and improve the quality of life. It was the first-of-its-kind communications network, intended to replace payphones in five boroughs in the city. The public were allowed to access Wi-Fi, phone calls, device charging and tablet for access to city services, maps and directions.

The fastest broadband publicly available in the city is used by more than 21 million times. There have been 475 thousand visits to kiosks. They were highly useful for those who wanted to save data.