Exploring Manhattan
with peripheral vision

CBS Outdoor and CBS Interactive have partnered for an ambitious Wi-Fi project that allows advertisers to reach midtown Manhattanites and visitors on a large scale, according to MediaBuyerPlanner (via Editor & Publisher).

Midtowners are receiving the gift of free Wi-Fi for six months, as CBS rolls out the CBS Mobile Zone across more than 20 New York City blocks, from Times Square to Central Park South, and from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue.

Sponsors of the CBS Mobile Zone — which will present users with an ad-supported home page complete with breaking news and weather reports — include Citi and Salesgenie.com.

The project, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New York City Transit, will "test the potential communications capabilities of Wi-Fi technology." The effort also corresponds with mental shifts from treating wifi as a privileged item to a utility.

The CBS Mobile Zone will go fully operational later this month. The service is being delivered by transmitters on CBS Outdoor billboards and on MTA and NYC Transit-owned urban panels located above subway entrances.

Local businesses are being offered free routers so the companies can take advantage of the wireless service from indoors.

The move trumps Clear Channel Outdoor’s Time Square billboard, unveiled in October, which offered Times Square’s first free, public Wi-Fi hotspot.