Central Park unplugged; free wi-fi shut down

NewYorkology: A New York Travel Guide

January 7, 2009

Central Park unplugged; free wi-fi shut down

Say goodbye to free wireless Internet in Central Park.

WifiSalon, the company that had the city contract to supply the service, “quietly shutdown in October due to lack of financing and is in the process of removing equipment,” Crain’s reports.

A December 5 note on the company website explains it this way:

For the past six years, Wi-Fi Salon has worked to bring free public Wi-Fi to New York City’s parks and public spaces. From Oct 2004 through Oct 2008 we held a concession with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation to provide Wi-Fi in 18 locations in 10 flagship NYC parks in 4 boroughs.

The dates listed are interesting, considering Central Park wi-fi had its soft launch in August 2006 and will still in “test mode” in November of that year.

Originally, 10 city parks were slated to get Internet access from WiFi Salon by October 2005. The process had been “very frustrating,” Marshall Brown, the company’s founder and CEO, told NewYorkology at the time.

The contract also covered Battery Park, Prospect Park, Riverside Park, Washington Square Park, Union Square Park, the Pelham Bay Park Golf Course, the Van Cortlandt Park Golf Course and at the concession area at Orchard Beach.

But Crain’s also quotes a statement from the Department of Parks and Recreation that prmises the city will launch “a series of digital inclusion initiatives focused on expanding access to, and adoption of, broadband technology, including service in parks across the city.”

Other location still offer free wireless, such as at Bryant Park and several downtown hotspots including City Hall Park and the Plaza at 7 World Trade Center.

NYCWireless, which earlier reported WifiSalon’s departure, notes the wi-fi is still up and running in the parks it outfits, including Madison Square Park, Wagner Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Jackson Square Park, and Stuyvesant Cove Park.

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