January 2016 — It is about 10pm on a Monday evening in New York City. I have an hour to pass before my next train home. It is freezing and I am near the Mid-Manhattan Library at 455 Fifth Avenue. So I decide to go in and sit upstairs in a quiet zone. I pull out my Macbook. The library’s Wi-fi login window pops up on the screen. I log in. Out of habit, I check the connection speed and whoa! The speedometer needles deep into the red zone for both upload and download speeds. I am getting 80.56 Mbps downstream and 94.30 upstream. 1st Test This is some serious speed for a free public facility. How do you get the upload speed that is higher than the download speed? Are these numbers incorrect? I wonder. So I decide to test again. Similar result! 2nd Test Third time. Again the similar result. 3rd Test At a time when many so-called “business hotels” still offer meager Internet speed as paid service (been there, paid that), I am impressed that a public facility provides blazing Internet speed at no cost. (Of course, taxpayers pick up the tab but nonetheless.) Good job, New York Public Library!
