Later this summer, a contractor will be chosen to develop and deploy a wireless network in New York City's Central Park that will be launched in summer 2007. Eventually, the plan will be to offer WiFi access to users in other large parks in the NYC metropolitan area, including those in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens.
The city's Department of Parks and Recreation believes that since Central Park and these other larger parks will foster heavy usage of these wireless networks because they are all surrounded by neighborhoods with a great many residents and businesses. However, this initiative is not the same as other citywide networks across the country whereby access is available from virtually any location throughout a municipality. Therefore, if you live in Manhattan in Greenwich Village, it's pretty safe to say you won't be able to access the Central Park's WiFi network from your apartment or townhouse.
While it certainly is a good idea to launch a wireless network in this widely used space in NYC, what about the rest of the Big Apple? It seems the city is backing into wireless networking without going full speed ahead.
