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In NYC: Private livery service, public Wi-Fi

Private cars outfitted with mobile hot spots may be the answer to delivering free Wi-Fi to all of New York City

Liane Yvkoff
Liane Yvkoff is a freelance writer who blogs about cars for CNET Car Tech. E-mail Liane.
Liane Yvkoff
Free ad-supported Wi-Fi is coming to New York via private car services.
Free ad-supported Wi-Fi is coming to New York via private car services. LimoRes.com

Private car services may not be the cheapest way to get around the city, but at least you can get a little work done while you're stuck in traffic, now that a handful of them are equipped to deliver free ad-supported Internet access. Or so the rationalization goes.

But it's not just the well-heeled who will benefit from this perk; these mobile hot spots may be the answer to delivering free Wi-Fi to all of New York City.

LimoRes Car & Limo Service, a private car service company, has outfitted 25 of its cars with Wi-Fi hot spots that deliver free ad-supported Internet access to its customers and bystanders within a 400-foot radius.

"Our plan is to basically blanket the city with tens of thousands of vehicles," Alex Mashinsky, the company's founder, said in a Wall Street Journal article.

Enough Wi-Fi-equipped vehicles on the road could create a mesh of sorts that provides free Internet access to everyone. The downside is that each time you lose signal from one hot spot, you have to manually connect to the next.

But hey, it's free.

Mashinsky expects to have 1,000 Wi-Fi-equipped cars on city streets by early fall. The cars will also be equipped with power outlets and charging plugs for several mobile devices, such as iPads and BlackBerry phones.

(Source: The Wall Street Journal)