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More NYC parks, beaches are getting free public Wi-Fi and charging stations – Metro US

More NYC parks, beaches are getting free public Wi-Fi and charging stations

More NYC parks, beaches are getting free public Wi-Fi and charging stations
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No matter where they decide to relax this summer, New Yorkers will stay connected.

The city’s Parks Department announced Tuesday that the agency, together with AT&T, will be extending free public Wi-Fi in parks and beaches across the city for five more years.

In total, the free Wi-Fi is available to New Yorkers — no matter their wireless carrier — at 27 locations in 21 parks in all the five boroughs.

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Since being launched in 2011, the Wi-Fi in the Parks initiative has made an estimated 8.6 million connections

“The renewal of our partnership with AT&T, expanding free Wi-Fi and charging stations to more of our parks this summer and fall, furthers Parks’ commitment to utilizing technology to serve parkgoers city wide,” said Mitchell Silver, Parks Commissioner. “Through amenities like Wi-Fi and charging stations in parks, we help increase technological access, while gathering insights into how our visitors engage our green spaces; insights that strengthen our strategic approach to building a better park system for the future.”

Along with the public Wi-Fi, the city will also increase the number of free solar mobile charging stations to 34 units at 15 parks and beaches.

The charging units — which will work under all weather conditions — were first introduced in 2013 after New Yorkers faced power and connection problems during Hurricane Sandy.

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A total of four new parks in the city will get the AT&T Street Charge units including Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, Sunset and Prospect parks in Brookyn, and Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx.

“Over the past five years, millions of visitors to New York’s parks and beaches have connected over Wi-Fi in the Parks and charged their devices at AT&T Street Charge units,” said Marissa Shorenstein, AT&T’s New York State President. “It’s been exciting to watch these programs become proof points for how a city can leverage advances in technology to keep its citizens connected.”