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Free Hi-Speed Pub­lic Wifi Com­ing to Gov­er­nors Island in July

Jun 28, 2018 5:24 pm

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and the May­ors Office of the Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer announced today the launch of free, high-speed pub­lic Wi-Fi on Gov­er­nors Island. The next gen­er­a­tion, 5G-enabled ser­vice will be pro­vid­ed by Fiber­less Net­works, also announced today as the win­ner of the Gov­er­nors Island Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Chal­lenge, the first city­wide ​‘Moon­shot Chal­lenge’ through the NYCx pro­gram. Pub­lic Wi-Fi ser­vice will be avail­able on Gov­er­nors Island begin­ning July 1.

Fiber­less Networks’s win­ning solu­tion will bring an impor­tant ameni­ty to Gov­er­nors Island’s grow­ing audi­ence of hun­dreds of thou­sands of sea­son­al vis­i­tors, ven­dors, arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming part­ners and ten­ants. The tech­nol­o­gy deliv­ered on Gov­er­nors Island, the first of its kind in any New York City open space, will serve as a test case for advanc­ing broad­band, Wi-Fi and 5G cel­lu­lar ser­vice through­out the City. 

“Gov­er­nors Island is an increas­ing­ly impor­tant place for cre­ativ­i­ty and inno­va­tion in New York City,” said Michael Samuelian, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“As a unique des­ti­na­tion with expan­sive open space, unpar­al­leled flex­i­bil­i­ty and an engaged audi­ence, there is no bet­ter place to test, deploy and accel­er­ate inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies in the city than Gov­er­nors Island. We’re excit­ed to deliv­er ultra-fast and afford­able Wi-Fi to the diverse set of New York­ers who vis­it us each year, and for our cur­rent and future ten­ants who are part of our grow­ing community.” 

Today’s announce­ment marks the cul­mi­na­tion of the Gov­er­nors Island Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Chal­lenge announced by May­or Bill de Bla­sio in Octo­ber 2017. The first of sev­er­al ​‘Moon­shot Chal­lenges’ unveiled by the city’s NYCx pro­gram, the Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Chal­lenge show­cased Gov­er­nors Island as an ide­al test­bed for the lat­est in con­nec­tiv­i­ty solu­tions. Glob­al entre­pre­neurs were invit­ed to pro­pose and deliv­er bold solu­tions to deliv­er hi-speed broad­band and 5G cel­lu­lar ser­vice on Gov­er­nors Island, pro­vid­ing a plat­form for the City to acquire new insights to advance con­nec­tiv­i­ty for all New Yorkers.

“The NYCx pro­gram was anchored in the Con­nec­tiv­ty Moon­shot Chal­lenge, and we’re thrilled to see the launch of per­va­sive Wi-Fi across a cher­ished New York City des­ti­na­tion,” said Jere­my M. Gold­berg, Deputy CTO, NYCx, Mayor’s Office of the Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer. ​“Wi-Fi is an essen­tial part of par­tic­i­pat­ing in today’s world, and we hope that the pos­i­tive out­comes of this chal­lenge will roll-out to oth­er loca­tions in the City and ben­e­fit all New Yorkers.”

Coun­cil Mem­ber Peter Koo, Chair of the Tech­nol­o­gy Com­mit­tee, stat­ed, ​“We’re kick­ing off the sum­mer sea­son on Gov­er­nors Island in the best way pos­si­ble by bring­ing free Wi-Fi ser­vice to its vis­i­tors. This effort shows that no mat­ter how spread out our land­scapes may be, New York City is ded­i­cat­ed to ensur­ing our com­mu­ni­ties are con­nect­ed to high-speed net­works. Thank you to the Mayor’s Office of the CTO, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and Fiber­less Net­works for mak­ing this project a reality.” 

“I am thrilled that free, high speed con­nec­tiv­i­ty will final­ly make its way to Gov­er­nors Island,” said Coun­cil Mem­ber Mar­garet S. Chin. ​“With its lush green­space and breath­tak­ing views of New York har­bor, Gov­er­nors Island has long been rec­og­nized as an organ­ic oasis, a cen­ter for cul­ture and recre­ation and — thanks to the Moon­shot chal­lenge — a hub of tech inno­va­tion. I look for­ward to future part­ner­ships and oppor­tu­ni­ties that will bring even more resources to the thou­sands of vis­i­tors, work­ers and ven­dors that uti­lize the Island every year.”

Over the past six months, final­ists for the Gov­er­nors Island Con­nec­tiv­ty Chal­lenge worked with the Trust and the Mayor’s Office of the Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer to build and test solu­tions on Gov­er­nors Island. Fiber­less Net­works, based in Quin­cy, MA will deliv­er the ser­vice on Gov­er­nors Island for the pub­lic sea­son and for the next sev­er­al years.

“We are both hon­ored and excit­ed to have been cho­sen by the Trust of Gov­er­nors Island to par­tic­i­pate in pro­vid­ing next gen­er­a­tion ultra­fast and afford­able wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tions to the island,” said Louis Slaugh­ter, CEO of Fiber­less Net­works Cor­po­ra­tion. ​“Through his­to­ry the Island has been an impor­tant part of New York City’s her­itage hav­ing wit­nessed the first pub­lic flight in the Unit­ed States by Wilbur Wright around the island.Wireless com­mu­ni­ca­tions of the flight was per­son­al­ly telegraphed from the Island by Gugliel­mo Mar­coni, Inven­tor of the wire­less telegraph.We are pleased to be yet anoth­er mile­stone for Gov­er­nors Island albeit not as momen­tous as the flight of Wilbur Wright but sig­nif­i­cant­ly faster than the com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­vid­ed by Sig­nore Marconi”.

NYCX seeks to fur­ther May­or Bill de Blasio’s goal of ensur­ing every New York City res­i­dent and busi­ness will have access to afford­able, reli­able, high-speed broad­band ser­vice by 2025.

A pop­u­lar sea­son­al des­ti­na­tion for recre­ation, arts, cul­ture and edu­ca­tion, Gov­er­nors Island is under­go­ing a trans­for­ma­tion into a year-round com­mu­ni­ty with new com­mer­cial, cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ty. The Island is open to the pub­lic sev­en days a week from May 1 through Octo­ber 31 from 10 AM to 6 PM week­days, from 10AM-10 PM on Fri­days between May 25-Sep­tem­ber 14 and from 10 AM to 7 PM weekends.

About NYCx

Launched in Octo­ber, 2017, NYCx is the world’s first munic­i­pal pro­gram to trans­form urban spaces into hubs for tech col­lab­o­ra­tion, research, test­ing and devel­op­ment. New York City’s diverse pop­u­la­tion, econ­o­my and land­scape offer a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty for tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies to devel­op tools that improve the world. NYCx is a pro­gram in the Mayor’s Office of the Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer. Learn more at www​.nyc​.gov/nycx