Today's New York Times features a lengthy story on the free wireless networks that will be set up in 10 of New York City's parks, including Central Park and others located in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. The networks will be up and running by the end of August.
An interesting part of the story is that Wi-Fi Salon, a start-up that won the contract to build the networks, has signed Nokia on as a sponsor. Obviously, with the kind of clout that Nokia brings to the table, these networks will certainly have the kind of marketing muscle that will be required for them to succeed. As part of the agreement, Nokia will introduce mobile multimedia services in the parks with local media partners who will in turn provide complimentary mobile versions of their content to Nokia devices with WiFi connectivity used in the parks.
As we've said here before, this is a welcome development, especially since these parks are heavily used all year round. Now as for the rest of the city, we'll wait and see.
