Verizon unwires New York with Wi-Fi access points

IDG News Service - Verizon Communications flipped the "on" switch today on 150 Wi-Fi access points located around New York City, launching an outdoor wireless network that the company hopes will attract subscribers to its Verizon Online Internet access service.
The access points, dubbed Verizon HotSpots and built into the New York-based company's pay-phone kiosks, offer high-speed connections in a radius of up to 300 feet. Verizon Online subscribers can access the network for free, using devices like laptop or handheld computers that are equipped with Wi-Fi capabilities.
By year's end, Verizon expects to have 1,000 HotSpots activated throughout New York. A map of the HotSpots is available on Verizon's Web site and will be updated as new HotSpots are added, the company said.
Verizon also lowered prices and raised the maximum available speeds on its Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) subscription packages targeted at small businesses and consumers.
Verizon's DSL service now starts at $29.95 per month when purchased in conjunction with the company's phone services, down from $34.95 per month before. The price tag for stand-alone DSL service dropped to $34.95, down from a previous minimum of $49.95.
The company said that it has increased the maximum download speed available through Verizon Online DSL to 1.5Mbit/sec., up from the earlier rate of 768Kbit/sec.
The goal of the changes, particularly the Wi-Fi network rollout, is to make the broadband experience better for Verizon Online's subscribers and draw new customers to the service, said Michael Lanier, Verizon's broadband wireless Internet marketing director.
Verizon declined to discuss which other cities it might be considering for similar Wi-Fi networks. But assuming all goes well in New York, the company does plan to enter other markets, Lanier said.
At a launch event in Madison Square Park, Verizon staffers offered passers-by a chance to surf the Internet on several demo laptops with wireless connections and distributed subway maps highlighting HotSpot zones.
New York already has a relatively high number of Wi-Fi hot spots. NYCwireless, a volunteer-run nonprofit organization, for years has advocated for and helped develop free wireless public access points. Earlier this month, the Downtown Alliance, an advocacy group for lower Manhattan, began establishing free Wi-Fi spots throughout that neighborhood.
Lanier said Verizon officials don't view those free efforts as competition, because the company's Wi-Fi network is intended to be a perk for its broadband customers -- not a stand-alone service.