Dumbo Brooklyn First to Offer Free Wireless Access
June 2nd, 2011
DUMBO Business Improvement District (BID), Two Trees Management Company, and NYCwireless announce that Dumbo is now New York City’s first neighborhood to offer wireless internet access on streets, in its parks and plazas. DUMBO Wi-Fi is made possible by a public-private partnership between the neighborhood’s largest real estate holder, Two Trees, and the entity most directly responsible for guiding the development of public space in the Dumbo community, the Dumbo BID.
“We are encouraging people to step out of their offices and homes and engage with one another and the neighborhood in new and different ways,” said Alexandria Sica, Executive Director of the Dumbo BID. “Dumbo is the epicenter for digital start-ups and production companies. Wi-Fi is one more way to inspire the workforce we have and help attract new talent to the Brooklyn Waterfront. In DUMBO, you can put together a proposal while gazing at the Brooklyn Bridge and all of Manhattan. Creativity can literally flow into the streets. Businesses will be born in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The next Etsy could be thought up right under the Manhattan Bridge!”
The building, installation, and maintenance of the Wi-Fi network is executed by NYCwireless, a non-profit organizations that builds, supports, and advocates for free, public Wi-Fi Internet access in New York City.
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz was in Dumbo today for the announcement at The Archway. He said, “For the first time in New York City, an entire area has become a hot spot – a haven for bloggers, Tweeters, emailers, Facebookers and everyone else who thrives on the internet. One day, mark my words, this area will rival Silicon Valley in terms of high tech ingenuity – so it’s only natural that Dumbo is the first neighborhood to be truly connected 24/7.”
The Dumbo BID has provided free wifi at the Brooklyn Bridge Park (Main Street Lot) since 2006 and was the first Brooklyn park to do so. Today’s announcement by the Dumbo BID may pave the way for the 64 other Business Improvement Districts in NYC to offer internet access for their residents and businesses.
{Using Internet Outside? In Part of Brooklyn, Free Wireless Access Arrives, 02june2011, NYTimes}
{Press release from Two Trees (610kb PDF file)}
June 2nd, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Wow. That’s pretty cool. Way to give a little something back to the community.
June 2nd, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Happy to have it. Look forward to using it.
Except that Marty had to be there for the publicity. The that never saw a chain store he did not love. No friend to the small business owner just his ego.
I bet he sis not ride a bike over just used one of his chauffeur driven cars.
June 2nd, 2011 at 7:34 pm
And what’s the SSID and Password if needed? The devil is in the details.
June 2nd, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Search for a wifi network > select “Free DUMBO Wi-Fi” > then a browser window will prompt you for your nycwireless account login. If you don’t have one, you can create an account.
June 2nd, 2011 at 8:18 pm
That’s frustrating…the nycwireless.com stuff doesn’t provide WEP/WPA encryption, does it? Just a webpage based authentication wall?
June 2nd, 2011 at 8:30 pm
No they don’t. I’d advise to use SSH/SSL for telnet/websites and a VPN connection.
June 2nd, 2011 at 5:05 pm
[...] More details are available at the Dumbo NYC site for that neighborhood. [...]
June 3rd, 2011 at 3:26 am
[...] More details are available at the Dumbo NYC site for that neighborhood. [...]
June 3rd, 2011 at 12:36 pm
[...] central? Sure the cost of living is high, but we still know where to find $2 PBR’s and now, free Wi-Fi in Dumbo that isn’t in a [...]
June 3rd, 2011 at 3:02 pm
[...] More details are available at the Dumbo NYC site for that neighborhood. [...]
June 6th, 2011 at 11:11 am
[...] Dumbo Brooklyn First to Offer Free Wireless Access, 02Jun2011 Filed in Dumbo Improvement, Dumbo Retail and Businesses, Dumbo Tech, Dumbo in Media, digitaldumbo at 11:11 am View Comments blog comments powered by Disqus /* [...]
June 7th, 2011 at 4:32 am
Will the service extend into Vinegar Hill any time soon? Are we not considered part of the DUMBO BID?
June 7th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
without wireless encryption…dumbo will be ripe with firesheepers and traffic sniffers. why don’t they just add encryption and use a password of dumbo and all will be secure.
June 7th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
If your concerned about personal security, use ssl https etc and firewalls
Security concerns are like saying once in a while a hitchhiker has an incident, maybe true, but many millions of miles are traveled safely with no concerns and much value created.Should fear be the dominant concern to restrict collective opportunity? I don’t think so. deal with the opportunity by finding solutions to the challenges, not by retreating from them due to fear.
June 8th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
good luck instructing the many visitors who are not technical how to use ssl/https/firewalls etc. a much simpler solution is to encrypt all traffic. just because a once in a while incident is reported, doesn’t mean many more have an incident. i wonder how many people know fb’s entire user base’s passwords were compromised several weeks ago… http://www.infoworld.com/t/data-security/symantec-change-your-facebook-password-now-692
June 8th, 2011 at 6:45 pm
just use your 3g/4g for internet ya cheap bastids
June 9th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
[...] the prior announcement of the free Dumbo wi-fi last week, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, the New York [...]
June 11th, 2011 at 9:35 pm
[...] More details are available at the Dumbo NYC site for that neighborhood. [...]
July 1st, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Its driving my a little crazy. Everytime I check my email, or anything else, on the street I have to login which isn’t a big deal but.. is there any way to just be logged in automatically? Or not be asked and no pop up for login?
July 4th, 2011 at 8:17 pm
I’d like having this kind of service in yhe city that I live. But our taxes are used to pay for those that don’t give us back for these taxes we pay…
I mean, so many taxes and no service back to the people that elected them.
July 5th, 2011 at 5:59 pm
so much hype for nothing, It doesn’t work! Didnt work on my iPhone, iPad and laptop
August 2nd, 2011 at 10:02 am
[...] (55 Washington Street) have joined the New York Digital District, the neighborhood that offers free wireless access and the Dumbo Business [...]
August 10th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
[...] umbrellas. It’s one of those only-in-Dumbo type of installations, with Dumbo being the first neighborhood to offer wifi access on the streets and with many startups in the neighborhood, but Pensa believes there is an [...]
January 9th, 2013 at 12:11 pm
[...] where it has more than 3,000 employees. It’s not the first New York neighborhood to provide free wireless, but it is Google’s first urban wi-fi network, and an important step in the company’s continuing [...]
January 9th, 2013 at 12:19 pm
[...] where it has some-more than 3,000 employees. It’s not a initial New York neighborhood to yield giveaway wireless, though it is Google’s initial civic wi-fi network, and an critical step in a company’s [...]
March 29th, 2013 at 4:12 am
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