Tech Shout!

Nokia has teamed-up with WiFi Salon to offer free access and streaming radio, news and other mobile multimedia applications alongwith various other mobile multimedia services city parks in the New York City.

Currently, this service is available in two New York City locations: Battery Park and Central Park. Further plans to expand this service to eight more parks in the city soon are in the works.

“This is a great opportunity for Nokia to showcase the capabilities of our mobile multimedia devices,” said Floris van de Klashorst, director, multimedia, Nokia. “Wi-Fi in the parks is an excellent way to pilot new services with our partners in the media industry, while New Yorkers can enjoy some of their favorite pastimes while in the parks – such as reading the paper, listening to music or accessing the Internet – in an entirely new way.”

The network is being operated and maintained by WiFi Salon. The company has been granted a license to install and operate a total of 16 Wi-Fi hot spots in 10 of the city’s parks for the next three years.

“Wi-Fi can be more than about Web surfing and checking e-mail,” said Marshall Brown, founder and CEO of WiFi Salon. “What if a hot spot was not just a gateway, but a destination? What if it offered rich multimedia experiences based on the neighborhood where you are located? As prime neighborhood meeting grounds, parks are ideal places for people to experience this new approach to public Wi-Fi.”

Access to these multimedia services over the Wi-Fi network will be possible with Nokia products that have wireless LAN built in, such as the Nokia N80, the Nokia N91 – two of the latest multimedia devices in the Nokia Nseries range – and the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, a portable multimedia tablet optimized for Internet communications. Park visitors can access the public Wi-Fi network using laptops or other portable devices with wireless LAN as well.

The networks currently being installed will cover 10 major parks in New York City, including Central Park, Union Square Park Meadows.