Verizon Communications Inc. plans to offer wireless Internet access in busy sections of cities like New York by installing “WiFi” equipment in its pay phones, a top Verizon executive said Friday.
After delivering a speech at a wireless security conference in New York, Verizon’s vice chairman and president, Lawrence Babbio, was asked whether Verizon would consider turning its pay phones into WiFi “hot spots” that radiate Internet access for a few hundred feet, since the phones’ wiring can facilitate connections to the Internet.
Babbio responded by saying Verizon expects to announce such a plan shortly.
“All of our pay phone people have already told us” that the phones would make good wireless access points, Babbio said. “That will probably be the vehicle we use, probably in Manhattan.”
[via NYT]