I was in New York City a couple of days before New Year's Eve to check out the New York Christmas scene. I found myself walking through a tourist filled Times Square. Some celebrity was doing an interview there. I didn't look to see who it was because all I wanted to do was get out of there, since since all I could hear was screaming voices.
In the midst of this I looked up and I saw a sign that said, "Free Wi-Fi now in Times Square." I couldn't believe it. Why would there even be free Wi-Fi in Times Square? I was thinking it must have something to do with 3G bandwidth congestion since I've heard that it's been a problem in New York. Perhaps the idea was to get the people who use their phones to access the Internet to use this network instead to help alleviate some cellular congestion.
But no, it apparently is not related to that. Yahoo!, which has a big neon sign in Times Square, has teamed with the Times Square Alliance to provide free Wi-Fi for an entire year. It started on November 10th. I know it's hard getting a cell signal when that many people are packed into one place they way they were. I wonder if that Wi-Fi network got congested on New Year's Eve. I wasn't there to test it.
