Google offers new york city neighborhood free wifi

Google says that the new service is providing free Internet access to hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors to New York. It is the biggest WiFi network in the city. Google said Tuesday it is teaming up with a New York City neighborhood business group to provide the company's first urban Wi-Fi network.

The network will be available free to about a block area surrounding Google's offices in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, where Google has more than 3, employees.

The area also is home to other tech companies, as well as high-end hotels and nightclubs and a housing project with more than 2, tenants. Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat, echoed that sentiment. Some might even call this a PR stunt. Bloomberg noted that this is not the city's first free Wi-Fi. Twenty parks around the city have complimentary wireless service, with another 32 to be connected in the near future.

Google, along with Boingo Wireless, also outfitted some of the city's subway stations with free Wi-Fi last year. Just south of midtown Manhattan, Chelsea is a busy mix of commercial businesses and homes, both high-end luxury condominiums and public housing. It is home to the fashion district, which generates a lot of tourist traffic, as well as to a number of technology companies, such as Google. The project has no connection to another Google effort to install high-speed fiber optic Internet connectivity to Kansas City homes, Fried said.

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