Street Access to the Cyberhighway

TCC Teleplex chief Dennis Novick says pay phones with high-speed Net connections in New York City are only the start of its plans. His company, a leading installer of pay phones in Manhattan, has installed 27 Web phones that offer all the services of a PC Internet connection in the comfort of your very own New York City sidewalk. Just 25 cents buys users a minute of high-speed Web access. E-mails cost 50 cents and can incorporate photos and Web video taken right on the spot. Teleplex also provides a free primary search for sub-pages on Google as well as access to city Web sites such as www.nyc.gov and www.nycvisit.com, thus offering tourists maps and information about events in the city. The Web phones double as Wi-Fi hotspots, and Novick believes it's only a matter of months before other U.S. cities dial in to this new tech phenomenon. New York gets 35 million visitors annually, and these people are not walking around with laptops or PDAs. TCC Teleplex have situated its kiosks in midtown as well as the Village and other areas [popular with tourists].