Nigerian princes, get ready!
The city has quietly flipped on the free wireless Internet in McCarren Park — making it the borough’s first park to score the service.
On Friday, a tech company put the final touches on the WiFi service, forever changing the peace and quiet of the great outdoors and allowing web surfers to download all their spam for free.
“It’s ready to go,” said Ray Funck, project manager for IT Hospitality Solutions, which worked with AT&T on the project. “This is a great spot for it.”
Workers set up three antennae — which are fastened a brick maintenance building near Driggs Avenue and Lorimer Street — to provide a speedy connection that was glitch-free when The Brooklyn Paper tested it on Friday afternoon.
The digital hookup is part of a five-year initiative to bring the free service to parks including Prospect Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park and Fort Greene Park.
On Friday, some McCarren Park-goers championed the idea, saying they’ll gladly sit under a tree with a latte and a laptop.
“I’ll probably come and play online poker in the shade,” said Ronald Blaich, who was walking his dog. “Sounds cool.”
Others said that they’d skip the idea of taking good, old-fashioned greenspace and filling it with more technology.
“I would never use the Internet in a park — that’s what the office is for,” said Chris Hemmeter, who was lying in the sun, looking up at the sky dreamily. “You can’t be connected all the time.”
The city disagrees, touting the plan as a smart way to mix work with the outdoors.
Parks officials did not respond immediately to calls seeking comment — nor have they announced the service is up and running in McCarren Park, perhaps because they’re weary of glitches that have plagued other cities such as Miami Beach and San Francisco.
But Funck — who has tested wireless broadband in other municipalities — said small-scale service such as this are generally more successful, adding that he expects this one to be flawless.
“The future’s here!” he said.
So is future shock.
