LinkNYC, the program that plans to convert old New York City payphones into Wi-Fi hotspots with handy USB charging ports, made its official debut today.

The so-called "Links" will eventually be available at 7,500 old payphones, but the retrofitted terminals are initially rolling out in beta testing across a few city blocks in Manhattan. We decided to give the Wi-Fi capabilities a test drive to see if connecting to these links in the future would be worth it.

Here is what it was like: