紐約：全城免費WiFi啟動

紐約：全城免費WiFi啟動

為對抗電信公司高額收費以及龜速網(wǎng)絡，美國紐約今年起將分階段把昔日的投幣公共電話，改造為WiFi熱點站，提供比傳統(tǒng)電信公司無線網(wǎng)絡快得多的網(wǎng)速，更重要的，它還是免費的！

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

kiosk 公用電話亭['ki??sk]

municipal 市政的[mj?'n?s?p(?)l]

fibre 纖維['fa?b?]

consortium 財團，合伙[k?n's??t??m]

franchise 特權['fr?n(t)?a?z]

thwart 挫敗，阻礙[θw??t]

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First WiFi kiosks set to land on New York’s streets （557words）

By David Crow in New York

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The world’s fastest and largest municipal WiFi network is being rolled out in New York by a consortium of investors including Google, in the latest attempt by the internet company to shake up the US telecoms market.

LinkNYC will provide free-to-use connections with speeds of up to one gigabit per second through a network of 7,500 wireless hotspots that will be located on the sites of old telephone boxes. The speeds on offer will be roughly 20 times faster than the typical broadband service in New York.

The first of two “Link kiosks” will be unveiled on Tuesday on Third Avenue: the nine-foot towers will act as WiFi transmitters for a new superfast fibre network to replace the copper wires that once connected the phone boxes.

Each kiosk will also include a hands-free phone, an Android tablet for web browsing, and two digital screens for displaying advertisements, which will be sold to fund the service.

Customers will be invited to start testing the service later this month, and LinkNYC plans to install a further 500 kiosks by July, at which point the network will be available in all five boroughs of New York.

The consortium of investors behind LinkNYC won the bid to build the service when the city’s phone box franchise was put out to tender to municipal WiFi companies in 2014.

In June last year, the two leading members of the LinkNYC consortium were acquired by Sidewalk Labs, an “urban innovation” company set up by Google, and Dan Doctoroff, the former chief executive of Bloomberg.

The project is part of a broader effort by Google to reshape the US telecoms market, and comes after the company built a superfast fibre network in several cities, including Kansas City and Austin. It has also set up its own mobile phone service, Project Fi.

Qualcomm, the chipmaker, is also a member of LinkNYC, while Vonage, the internet telephone provider, will provide free voice calls to US phone numbers via the network.

Stanley Shor, a city official, said the project was part of mayor Bill de Blasio’s efforts to close the “digital divide” in New York, where about one in four families does not have a broadband connection.

“This will replace the city’s old phone boxes with new structures that offer totally free WiFi, bridging the ‘digital divide’,” Mr Shor said at a briefing on Monday. “People who don’t have internet in their homes will be able to have it all throughout the city.”

Although LinkNYC will not share the personal details of users with advertisers, it plans to use anonymised data to sell targeted advertisements to marketers

The project has the potential to steal business from wireless operators such as Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile US, as customers may decide to use the free network rather than paying their mobile phone carrier for data.

However, Mr Shor said the city had not been lobbied by companies that wanted to block the service, in contrast to other instances where telecoms groups have tried to thwart the creation of municipal internet networks.

The service is intended for customers who want high-speed internet access through their mobile devices while travelling on New York’s streets. However, some people who live close to a kiosk could access the network from inside their apartments, allowing them to dispense with a paid-for internet connection entirely.

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內容，完成以下自測題目：

1. How about the speed compared with the typical broadband service in New York?

a. very slow speed

b. similar

c. much faster

d. make no odds

2. What were replaced by the WiFi transmitters on Third Avenue?

a. phone boxes

b. towers

c. Control Group

d. news stalls

3. Which one is not included in the new kiosk?

a. a hands-free phone

b. an Android tablet

c. 2 digital screens

d. a camera

4. Who will provide free voice calls to US phone numbers via the network?

a. AT&T

b. Vonage

c. Google

d. T-Mobile US

[1] 答案 c. much faster

解釋：wifi提供每秒1GB的網(wǎng)速，是傳統(tǒng)網(wǎng)絡的20倍左右。

[2] 答案 a. phone boxes

解釋：最先設立的這兩個接入點將位于第三大道，這兩個位置原先放置的是公用電話亭。

[3] 答案 d. a camera

解釋：WiFi的接入點還會有免提電話、觸摸屏以及收取廣告費用的廣告展示屏。

[4] 答案 b. Vonage

解釋：芯片制造商Vonage將提供免費的網(wǎng)絡語音電話。