Newark will be the fourth city in the world -- and the first in New Jersey -- to provide high-speed wifi "Link" kiosks that will allow pedestrians to charge their phones, make a call or download music and movies, free of charge.

The multi-million dollar investment in the city by Intersection, a New York-based technology company, comes at an exciting time for Newark, which was recently named a finalist for Amazon's second headquarters.

"Newark is here, we are on the map," Aisha Glover, president of the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation (NCEDC) said during a Wednesday press conference at NJIT. "We are claiming our space. We certainly feel like this is our moment."

The city will also host this year's VOICE Technology Summit, the largest voice technology conference that gathers 1,500 developers and designers. The summit is sponsored by Amazon Alexa.

"The idea that this city is on its way to be a tech hub is outstanding," NJIT President Joel Bloom said. The college will host the three-day conference July 24-26.

Dan Doctoroff, chairman of Intersection, echoed those sentiments and said the company was betting on Newark. Intersection will install 45 LinkNWK sidewalk kiosks by the end of the year -- at no cost to the city.

Many of the kiosks will be installed in the downtown corridor (along Broad and Market streets and Irvine Turner and Martin Luther King Blvds) with at least two kiosks in the each ward, including in major commercial corridors like Ferry Street, Clinton Avenue and Bloomfield Avenue.

Doctoroff declined to detail the company's investment except to say it was "several million dollars." Intersection makes its money through ads on the digital screens and some of that revenue will also be shared with NCEDC and the city.

A minority investor in Intersection is Sidewalk Labs, which was created by Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

LinkNWK will let passersby make calls anywhere in the U.S., charge their devices and provide free high-speed wifi connected to Newark Fiber -- the city's public-private gigabit data network. The 55-inch digital screens on each side will also improve city communications and help inform residents of garbage pick-up days, parking rules and relate other important messages.

LinkNYC kiosk.

Intersection already operates 1,600 Link kiosks in New York City, London and Philadelphia. And it's not without its kinks. When the program first rolled out in New York in 2016, there were reports that people were using the devices to watch pornography.

Doctoroff said Intersection learned from operating two years in New York City and would apply those lesson in Newark, including turning off the internet browser and having a robust privacy policy.

The bigger goal, he said, was to help cities grow by improving connectivity and communication. And Newark, he said, was finally growing as a tech hub.

"We are looking for places where we can grow and utilize assets that are in the ground," said Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor in New York City who noted that he was born in Newark. "This is Newark's time."

Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.