New Zealand Converting Old Phone Booths Into National WiFi Network 72
An anonymous reader writes "What do you do with old public phone boxes hardly anyone uses? Convert them into a national network of WiFi hotspots is the answer in New Zealand. While others have converted their old phone booths into libraries, toilets, showers and even smoking booths, in New Zealand 700 hotspots will be live by 7 October with a target of 2000 by the middle of 2014. 1Gb of data will be free to customers of the incumbent operator, others have to pay for monthly access."
In the Soviet USA... (Score:3, Interesting)
They pulled the doors off after a SCOTUS ruling showed that they were a private space with a legal expectation of privacy. Once the doors came off the communications were considered public and OK to record.
I do still miss the less trackable days of pagers and phone booths from a tinfoil hat point of view though.
Re:Not the first (Score:2, Interesting)
Also there are free (as in anyone can use them) WiFi hotspots in government buildings e.g. libraries, recreational centers, buildings that house cooked food stands probably using same technology. There are also private WiFi hotspots at the usual locations: WiFi bus, shopping malls etc.
I used them on my last trip there.
Also insanely cheap internet. Saw HK$200 ($30 US) /month promotion for Gigabit out of the subway, further down the street HK$100 for Cable Internet and further down Hk$50 for DSL. Now that's competition at work.
Seems like everything is done under ground (read the text on those manhole covers). They don't put ugly boxes on sidewalk or overhead cables there. The equipments have to survive major flooding and strong winds during the typhoon seasons every summer.