Even the phone booths have had to adapt to the new times. With the proliferation of mobile phones, this typical element of the streets began to fall into disuse. Sometimes it is even difficult to find one and when you do, the difficult thing is that it works (or that it is clean). Nevertheless, the cabins could be resurrected adapted to the new digital timess. It has happened in New York, and now it is the London capital that is also betting on them.
London has become the second city in the world against con free WiFi cabins They also offer many other services to citizens, from calls to addresses and weather information. At the moment only one is operational, but the plans are ambitious.
The cabins of the XNUMXst century city
New York was the first city in the world to start offering these free WiFi cabins. Behind them is the LinkNYC team, sponsored in turn by Alphabet's Sidewalk laboratories and these are "kiosks" that offer connectivity to the free high-speed public WiFi network, but also allow citizens to make calls phone calls, charge your smartphone batteries, get maps and directions, local information, weather forecasts, and more. New York already has 900 of these cabins that now extend to London.
The first of these free WiFi cabins is located in Camden High Street in Londons, and began operating last Tuesday thanks to an agreement signed last year between British Telecom and New York. In England called inlinks (instead of Links), and like the American booths, it is financed thanks to the advertising that is continuously displayed on the screens located on both sides of these kiosks.
According to announced BT, many more of these free WiFi booths will be launched on other streets in London and also in other UK cities before the end of the year. In addition, there are plans that these "artifacts" also serve as sensors for environmental and noise pollution and that they offer traffic information.
Something that we will never see in third world countries? #GoodForLondres
Well, what a good idea, in addition to the extra uses that can be given to them by having a constant connection to the Internet, London setting the example in innovation. Unfortunately, something like this implemented in other countries like Mexico (where I live) will probably take years to arrive, but hey, there is already a way to go in terms of the right to Internet access.