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New York

hrmjustin

(71,265 posts) Wed Jun 18, 2014, 06:31 PM Jun 2014

Plan to turn payphones into Wi-Fi hubs criticized as "monopoly"

ERIN DURKIN

The de Blasio administration’s plan to turn thousands of city payphones into Wi-Fi and information hotspots is drawing heat from critics who say officials are creating a monopoly by seeking one company to take over all the phones.

Currently, 9000 city payphones are run by ten different operators - but under a request for proposals issued in April, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications is planning to pick one firm to transform them into high-tech hotspots.

Smaller companies that now have concessions for chunks of payphones complain they’re getting shut out.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/plan-turn-payphones-wi-fi-hubs-criticized-monopoly-blog-entry-1.1835228