internet | Bennat Berger

The Big App Pull: NYC Finally Awash in Free Wireless Internet

New York City’s history may be as deep and as complex as its subway system–but that doesn’t mean we should keep our eyes on the past. Of a stunning 8 million residents, too many New Yorkers have been left behind without reliable internet access. Now, both in the subway tunnels and on the streets, spaces shared in NYC have been linked to the rest of the web-bound world.

After enlisting a private company to install and maintain service last year, the MTA finally delivered on a long-held promise: wiring the entire tunnel-bound section of New York’s subway system with 4G connectivity. As a result, all 279 underground subway stations are equipped to fulfill New Yorkers’ web browsing, apps, calls, and texting needs while they ride the rails.

The same private contractor, Transit Wireless, installed free WiFi, giving straphangers multiple options to stay online during their commute. This move was long overdue, and a welcome change for a mass transit system with a variety of issues that have no quick fix in sight. While trains may not be moving at their highest efficiency, riders will at least have a wealth of activities at hand to get through delays. Both this cell hookup and subway WiFi came online well ahead of schedule, a rare but welcome change of pace from the usual transit timeline.

New Yorkers have their well-earned grievances with the subway system as it stands–but there’s no denying that this new internet-friendliness represents a major upgrade. And it’s not the only way the city has allowed for better internet access, as public high-tech connectivity has expanded above ground. Thanks to the new LinkNYC kiosks around the five boroughs, public WiFi covers an increasing number of our city sidewalks as well.

A 21st century take on the payphone, these kiosks offer free “super fast” WiFi, two USB connections for charging on the go, and a built-in phone to make free calls nationwide. 55-inch HD screens on the sides of these kiosks display NYC fun facts, bus arrival times, subway line updates, and advertisements, the last of which provides funding for the project.

A consortium of contractors referred to as CityBridge are responsible for installing and maintaining the units, with the city receiving 50% of gross revenues in return for the street space. While it’s important to always use caution when connecting to public WiFi, the encrypted connection offered by LinkNYC allows users to browse the web with confidence. With over 7,000 of these kiosks projected citywide by 2024, we can expect a city nearly blanketed by high-speed WiFi. This is no small task when covering over 8 million citizens.

Since the payphone system was installed in the early 1900s, New Yorkers have become accustomed to convenient communication no matter where they turn. Now, with most phone calls perpetually within arms’ reach, these new WiFi deployments offer an appropriately modern convenience with no quarters necessary.

Following this disruptive implementation, New Yorkers are already looking to what’s next. With our streets and subways now awash with WiFi, might public EV charging stations be far behind? Perhaps an AI-inflected solution to the delays plaguing underground transit?

In a city that’s always looking for the next big thing, public WiFi has been well overdue and is thankfully now here. For the next big leap forward, whether above ground or below, there ought to be no limit to our thinking.

How Amazon Is Redefining the Way Everyone Does Business

When you mention the name Amazon, one of dozens of different ventures may come to mind. Of course, there’s the website that started it all, with convenient two-day shipping and a seemingly infinite selection of goods. Maybe you think of the high-quality content arising from their Prime Video streaming service, or the Amazon Movie studio that’s released films from acclaimed auteurs like Spike Lee and Jim Jarmusch. There might even be an Amazon Echo in your home, connecting you to Amazon during your every waking hour.

Through retail, entertainment, even food, Amazon is quite clearly becoming a driving force in our everyday lives. It’s no secret that the company wields a great deal of influence over the things we buy and watch. But lesser known is just how much one particular division of the company provides the underlying support for all these products plus many others, in ways that carry serious implications not just for the company’s own business and those it hosts, but international relations and more.

Launched in 2002, Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers subscribers a complete online business platform via access to virtual computers and servers upon which they can conduct their day-to-day dealings. Thanks to an incredibly vast array of servers, a massive number of businesses from startups to industry hegemons currently conduct their operations under the Amazon umbrella.

With revenue of $17.4 billion in 2017, AWS has become a major piece of the supercorporation’s plans. Thanks to a roster of over one million clients, Amazon’s Internet dominance now reaches far beyond their retail origins. Customers of the web services range from Netflix to Unilever to the CIA, an impressively diverse set of users. We’re operating in unmapped territory when web-only businesses operate in the same sphere as colossal retail conglomerates and the world’s most powerful intelligence agency. Of course, if such a map does exist, it’s in the sole possession of Bezos and company.

To be clear, Amazon is not the only web giant offering such services. But similar initiatives from Google, Microsoft, and others don’t have nearly the reach that Amazon does, both online and off. Over a third of the entire world’s cloud computing services are handled by AWS, with no indication of slowing down. This means that, as business is increasingly done over the Internet, all roads must pass through Bezos’ domain.

Additionally, competing cloud computing services don’t have the integration with the mass shipping infrastructure that Amazon has built, nor Bezos’ continual expansion that’s been virtually without precedent. Google may be today’s biggest name in web services, but they don’t have a fleet of airplanes. Amazon does. Microsoft doesn’t have nearly 500 nationwide grocery locations with large footprints in virtually every major American city. Amazon does.

Skeptics have pointed out the potentially grave implications of one company holding this amount of power. A lengthy diatribe in The Nation magazine paints a gloomy picture of a world where all businesses must play by Amazon’s rules in order to function at all. If AWS continues to grow the way it has already through 15 years of existence, there’s no telling what the end result may be and whether new regulations will come into being to reign in the company’s ambitions.

Whether these predictions will come true or not, it’s undeniable that as the Internet is the staging area for more and more of everyday commerce, Amazon is poised to be the dominant force in that sphere and all touched by it for years to come.