Wi-Fi Umbrella to Cover 10 City Parks

Surf the Internet, that is.

A free Wi-Fi network is quietly being installed at 10 parks across the city - and eight hot spots in Central Park will be online by mid-October.

Wi-Fi - wireless fidelity, although the full name is rarely used - lets computer users with the right equipment log onto the Web wirelessly, is already running in Battery Park, near the Battery Gardens restaurant.

A Manhattan contractor, Wi-Fi Salon, is also outfitting Orchard Beach, Flushing Meadows and Van Cortlandt, Pelham Bay, Prospect, Riverside, Union Square and Washington Square parks.

"We're the media capital of the world, the cultural capital of the world," said Marshall Brown, Wi-Fi Salon's chief operating officer. "There should be a wireless umbrella over the whole city."

In Central Park, the hot spots will include the zoo, the Delacorte Theater and the Boathouse Cafe at 72nd St.

Prospect Park's Wi-Fi will be working by spring, at the Boathouse and Picnic House, Brown said.

Brown is paying the Parks Department a fee for the right to install his equipment.

So what does he get out of it?

He's hoping to entice computer users to sign up for his Internet phone pay service.

"Now, New Yorkers can go online while they are outdoors enjoying nature," said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

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