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GOWEX turns on free WiFi network in New York City, curbs coffee-shop hopping

Jamie Rigg
Reviews Editor, UK
Updated ·4 min read
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The Big Apple already has a candy coating of free WiFi, between permanent providers, transient offers, and the million coffee shops (et al) with a router inside. If there were any dead zones left in the city, GOWEX probably has them covered, with its 1,953 free WiFi hotspots now live throughout Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Repeat: this isn't a plan, the network is up and running right now. Each connection gets 1Mb of bandwidth, and you can jump on access points with GOWEX's app (also free) for iOS and Android, which also hosts content like a hotspot map and other city-specific info not related to WiFi. The company has other major cities in the US on its to-do list, and expects to bring free internets to two additional locales during 2013. Not that it matters to users, but GOWEX ain't doing this for fun -- it'll be profiting from advertising, its "Smart City services," and charging carriers for lightening traffic on their data networks. Who needs a data plan, anyway? It'll soon be impossible to find anywhere in NYC without a free WiFi hotspot, or seven.

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GOWEX deploys in New York one of the biggest free WiFi Networks in the world

  • New Yorkers and visitors will enjoy almost two thousands WiFi hotspots around the biggest neighborhoods of the city

  • The new "FREEWiFiGOWEX" network will allow data offloading from the 3G networks to the GOWEX access points

  • Using New York as launch pad, GOWEX plans to know to expand its offer to the other main cities of the country

MADRID--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

GOWEX (MAD:GOW) (Paris:ALGOW) (GOW-MAB, ALGOW-NYSE Alternext, LGWXY-OTC), leading company creating Wireless smart cities (Wireless Smart Cities®) and intelligent WiFi into the transport, will offer its Free WiFi solution to New York by the deployment of 1953 WiFi smart zones in the biggest neighborhoods of the city. Thanks to GOWEX, the almost 20 million of New-Yorkers and also the 52 millions of tourists who visit the city, will have free Internet access through-out the hundreds of hotspots spread out between Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

GOWEX will make profitable derivative investment efforts of this project, among others, through the following incomes:

  • Revenue from roaming and offloading: counting with more than 130 carriers that the proprietary platform from GOWEX roaming has. Among them, recent agreements announced with AT & T and Deutsche Telekom

  • Advertising revenues: by Smart Advertising platform from GOWEX both advertisers for the American market and for tourists visiting the city. America is the world's largest advertising market.

  • Revenues from Smart City services, based, service platform also owned by GOWEX, Wireless Smart Cities ® (WSC) Platform.

GOWEX in the United States

New York has always been considered as one of the strategic cities in which GOWEX wished to deploy its solutions. By this offer, the Company enters in the best possible way into the North American market and now reaches millions of potential users. "Offering our service in New York is a dream come true but also one more step towards our goal which is to soon cover the United States of America as well as we already cover Europe", said Jenaro García, GOWEX's CEO. "Offering free Internet in Times Square, Broadway, Fifth Avenue or Park Avenue thanks to a 100% Spanish project, is an honor", stated Jenaro García.

This new step follows the recent entrance of the Company into the North American market, where it will soon be listed through an ADR program (American Depositary Receipt) enabling the company's shares to be traded on the Over The Counter" (OTC) market (Ticker LGWXY).

An offer adapted for New Yorkers

The Free WiFi GOWEX connection will have certain technical specifications adapted to the use of New Yorkers and tourists. To access to the "FREEWiFiGOWEX" network, the users will have to previously download the GOWEX WiFi Free application, available for iOS and Android devices. This app, which is making its debut in New York in its 3.0 version, will offer among other functionalities: a smartzone map, adapted to the North American metric system, thematic new specific theme channels and city centric information pages.

Furthermore, the data download will be achieved through a 1Mb speed connection for free users. The network will also allow the 3G network operators to offload the data traffic through the GOWEX hotspots and therefore help enable relieve their networks that are regularly saturated in many points of New York due to the high number of connections and users in most of these areas.

New York, WiFi city

Earlier this year, Google announced a Free WiFi deployment in Chelsea. The Silicon Valley giant offers free internet connection to the 2.000 citizens and thousands of visitors in this district.

With the GOWEX project, Free WiFi now extends to all the neighborhoods in the City. New York now stands as a reference in terms of Free WiFi around the world.