Mountain View, California — In another neighborly gesture toward becoming a national Internet service provider, Google has partnered with The Chelsea Improvement Company, on Tuesday lifted the curtain on the New York City’s biggest contiguous free public Wi-Fi network in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
At a press gathering this morning, Google unveiled that its New York headquarters in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan will provide free Wi-Fi to residents in the area. “All you need is a laptop or smartphone or other wireless-enabled device and a web browser to get online,” Google’s chief information officer Ben Fried said at a press conference announcing the free Internet access, which covers about 20 city blocks in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
The free public service, which is being unfurled today by Google Chief Technology Officer Ben Fried and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), covering more than eight blocks in the bustling Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea, will be the largest contiguous free public Wi-Fi outdoor network in the city, Google claimed.
In a moment of sheer excitement, Google’s CTO said, “We are citizens of this community and this district, and it is important to us to contribute back and this is a way to do it that resonates with us,” Fried, at the conference. “I am a lifelong native New Yorker and that is why I am excited about this announcement.”
Google expects to serve hundreds of thousands of people per year in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea, where its large corporate offices have been located for the past six years, making it a logical place for the massive free Internet hotspot for New Yorkers toting WiFi-ready devices.
“New York is the second largest Google office in the world,” said Fried, flanked by city Mayor Michael Bloomberg and US Senator Chuck Schumer.
“This neighborhood can now claim to be the first in Manhattan with totally free outdoor WiFi,” Bloomberg remarked, adding that he hopes New York will dislodge California’s Silicon Valley one day to become “tech center of the world.”
Among other things, the company executive said, “This network will not only be a resource for the 2000+ residents of the Fulton Houses, it will also serve the 5,000+ student population of Chelsea as well as the hundreds of workers, retail customers and tourists who visit our neighborhood every day,” said Fried in a statement.
As a matter of fact, Google’s selection of location for the giant network is no surprise: Chelsea is home to Google’s New York headquarters, meaning employees out at lunch breaks or area meetings will be able to remain productive even while out of the office. So, when folks enter the Chelsea neighborhood, which spans Gansevoort Street and 19th Street from 8th Avenue to the West Side Highway, including the Chelsea Triangle, 14th Street Park, and Gansevoort Plaza, they will have free access to a Wi-Fi connection provided by Google.
Jordan Newman, a Google spokesman, told Mashable that the new Wi-Fi network is Google’s way of “giving back to the community that we have been in for the past six years or so.” He also indicated that Google has similar W-iFi networks in Mountain View, Calif., where Google’s main headquarters are located, and also in many neighborhoods with Google data centers.
Since long, the search giant has been making a push in New York City to deliver free Wi-Fi to residents. In June, for instance, the company announced that Google Offers was sponsoring free Wi-Fi in over 200 hot-spot locations across New York City. Six MTA subway stations also were offered free wireless connections. Google also offers a fiber Internet service in Kansas City, KS.
Image Courtesy: [PCMag.com — IMAGE]