NYCLink in Sunnyside
March 20, By Hannah Wulkan
Kiosks providing free Wi-Fi and cellphone charging will soon be live in Long Island City.
As part of a program replacing old payphones, new LinkNYC kiosks have started going up in LIC, and will be activated in the coming weeks, according to a spokesperson for the program.
The city began installing 11 new LinkNYC stations earlier this month, stretching along Jackson Avenue from 51st Avenue to 44th Drive. The new kiosks will provide free public Wi-Fi, phone calls, device charging and a tablet with access to maps and public city information.
Mayor Bill de Blasio commissioned the LinkNYC program in 2014, and since then about 800 of kiosks have been installed throughout the city. Once the project is complete, there will be over 7,500 kiosks throughout the city, though it is slated to take several more years to complete.
The new kiosks aim to replace now-outdated payphones completely, and are being funded entirely through advertising revenue.
About a dozen Links were installed in Sunnyside in November, marking the first in Western Queens. The spokesperson said that the program would expand throughout the city over the coming years, using the map of current payphone locations as a general guide for where to install new Links.
To see a map of current LinkNYC locations visit https://link.nyc/find-a-link.html.
