The office of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the plan on November 17, 2014, and the installation of the first kiosks, or "Links," started in late 2015.

The most recent competition, in 2014, resulted in the contract being awarded to the CityBridge consortium, which comprises Qualcomm; Titan and Control Group, which now make up Intersection; and Comark.

[1] Through the RFI, the New York City government sought new uses for the payphones, including a combination of "public wireless hotspots, touch-screen wayfinding panels, information kiosks, charging stations for mobile communications devices, [and] electronic community bulletin boards,"[1] all of which eventually became the features of the kiosks that were included in the LinkNYC proposal.

Intersection is being led by a Sidewalk Labs-led group of investors who operate the company as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. that focuses on solving problems unique to urban environments.

[28] Locations like St. George, Jamaica, South Bronx, and Flatbush Avenue were prioritized for LinkNYC kiosk installations, with these places receiving Links by the end of 2016.

[42][43] The first such pole was installed at the intersection of Hunters Point Avenue and 30th Place in Long Island City, Queens, in March 2022 and was used for testing.

[47] A 2023 study conducted by LinkNYC found that, although nearly half of residents surveyed were unaware of the poles' existence, those who did were largely supportive of the program.

[50] Following a letter from U.S. representative Jerrold Nadler,[55] the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled in April 2023 that the poles needed to undergo environmental and historic-preservation reviews.

[2][5] There is an integrated Android tablet embedded within each Link, which can be used to access city maps, directions, and services, as well as make video calls;[2][4][5] they were formerly also available to allow patrons to use the internet, but these browsers have now been disabled due to abuse (see below).

[62] In April 2017, the Links were equipped with another app, Aunt Bertha, which could be utilized to find social services such as food pantries, financial aid, and emergency shelter.

[4][66] New York City does not pay for the system because CityBridge oversees the installation, ownership, and operations, and is responsible for building the new optic infrastructure under the streets.

[67] The advertising is estimated to bring in over $1 billion in revenue over twelve years, with the City of New York receiving over $500 million, or about half of that amount.

[77] The lower sections of many of the poles have tablets, USB charging ports, 9-1-1 call buttons, and advertising displays, similar to the original kiosks.

[4] LinkNYC would also be the fastest citywide ISP in the world, with download and upload speeds between 15 and 32 times faster than on free networks at Starbucks, in LaGuardia Airport, and within New York City hotels.

"[16] The network is extremely popular, and by September 2016, around 450,000 unique users and over 1 million devices connected to the Links in an average week.

[83] This stems from the fact that the network provides service to all New Yorkers regardless of income, but it especially helps residents who would have otherwise used their smartphones for internet access using 3G and 4G.

[12] As of January 2018[update], the most-dialed number on the LinkNYC network was the helpline for the state's electronic benefit transfer system, which distributes food stamps to low-income residents.

[4][83] The deployment of the Links and the method, process, eventual selection, and ownership of entities involved in the project has come under scrutiny by privacy advocates, who express concerns about the terms of service, the financial model, and the collection of end users' data.

[66] Nick Pinto of the Village Voice, a Lower Manhattan newspaper, wrote: Google is in the business of taking as much information as it can get away with, from as many sources as possible, until someone steps in to stop it.

They recommended that the privacy policy be rewritten so that it expressly mentions whether the Links' environmental sensors or cameras are being used by the NYPD for surveillance or by other city systems.

[67] Despite the removal of the transmitters, Titan is proposing putting similar tracking devices on Links, but if the company decides to go through with the plan, it has to notify the public in advance.

[65] To protect against this, CityBridge places in "a series of filters and proxies" that prevents malware from being installed; ends a session when a tablet is detected communicating with a command-and-control server; and resets the entire kiosk after 15 seconds of inactivity.

However, the USB ports are still susceptible to physical tampering with skimmers, which may lead to a user's device getting a malware infection while charging; this is prevented by the more than 30 anti-vandalism sensors on each Link.

[65] One reporter for The Verge suggested that to circumvent this, a person could turn off their mobile device's Wi-Fi while in the vicinity of a kiosk, or "forget" the LinkNYC network altogether.

[96] A few days after Díaz's and Johnson's statements, the web browsers of the tablets embedded into the Links were disabled indefinitely due to concerns of illicit activities such as drug deals and NSFW website browsing.

[95] One Murray Hill resident reported that a homeless man "enthusiastically hump[ed]" a Link in her neighborhood while watching pornography.

[94] Despite the tablets being disabled, the 9-1-1 capabilities, maps, and phone calls would still be usable, and people can still use LinkNYC Wi-Fi from their own devices.

[98] The Guardian, another British newspaper, came to a similar conclusion; one of the LinkNYC users they interviewed said that the Links are "very helpful, but of course bad people messed it up for everyone".

[31][101] Barbara A. Blair, president of the Garment District Alliance, stated that "people are congregating around these Links to the point where they're bringing furniture and building little encampments clustered around them.

[112] In July 2017, the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, located across the Hudson River from Manhattan, proposed adding free Wi-Fi kiosks on its busiest pedestrian corridors.