Wi-Fi installed atop NYC phone booths

Wi-Fi antennas are adding 21st century relevance to relics of the 20th century -- phone booths.

The antennas have been mounted atop 10 city pay phones, giving New Yorkers free, 24-hour wireless Internet service, officials said Wednesday.

The first 10 hot spots are running at pay phones near pedestrian plazas and on busy street corners in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Others are expected to be installed in the Bronx and Staten Island by the end of the year, officials said. They provide fairly quick and unlimited ad-free service up to 200 feet from the phones.

"What we aim to get to is a fully connected city," Rachel Sterne, the city's chief digital officer, said Wednesday.

The free wireless Internet service is part of the city's effort to use its more than 12,000 pay phones and to get more New Yorkers broadband access, officials said. Free Wi-Fi is already available at all public library branches and 40 parks. The city hopes high-tech pay phone kiosks will be installed later this year that would provide other services in addition to making calls, such as giving out directions.

"It is not trying to replace the pay phone," said Rahul Merchant, the city's chief innovation and information officer. "It is 'What else would you like to see?' "

Van Wagner, one of the companies that has a contract with the city to operate pay phones, said it is picking up the $2,000 tab to install the Wi-Fi. The company hopes to extend its contract past October 2014 to expand its reach.

Peter Izzo, a company executive, said that during a two-month trial of the Internet service at the Broadway pedestrian plaza, users logged about 24,000 minutes of Internet use monthly.