Google donates $1 million to help expand free Wi-Fi in New York City

New York is expanding its free Wi-Fi program through public libraries with the help of a $1 million donation from Google, The Wall Street Journal reports. The donation will fund around 10,000 portable Sprint Wi-Fi hotspots that New Yorkers will be able to checkout at branches of the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Queens Library.

How about some Wi-Fi with those books? Beginning later this month, New York City residents will be able to check out portable wireless Internet hubs free of charge at their local library branch, city officials said. The program, expected to be announced Tuesday, will offer about 10,000 Wi-Fi units through branches of the New York Public Library, the Queens Library and the Brooklyn Public Library, funded partly with a $1 million donation from Google Inc. The initiative marks the city’s latest attempt to bring municipal Wi-Fi to the five boroughs, following an announcement last month that the city plans to turn some 6,000 city pay phones into stationary wireless hot spots.