’NET PROFIT: Armed with a MiFi device (inset), Clarence offers Web access in Austin, Texas, yesterday as part of a possibly Big Apple-bound project that turns the homeless into Wi-Fi hotspots. (Alberto Martinez/American-Statesman)
Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, I’m not here to rob you, and I’m not on drugs — I’m just your friendly neighborhood hotspot.
The homeless are being turned into walking Wi-Fi aerials — dispatched with devices to peddle Web access to passers-by — as part of a “charitable experiment” by a Manhattan ad agency.
Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty handed out the free MiFi gadgets to the peddlers — along with T-shirts bearing their names and the words “I’m a 4G hotspot’’ — for its controversial Homeless Hotspots project at the South by Southwest (SXSW) arts and tech festival in Austin, Texas.
The company will promote the concept among homeless shelters in New York City and elsewhere if the response is good, BBH honcho Saneel Radia told The Post.
“These are homeless individuals. They’re carrying MiFi devices. Introduce yourself, then log on to their 4G network via your phone or tablet for a quick, high-quality connection,” the company says on its Web site.
“This year in Austin, as you wander between locations murmuring to your coworker about how your connection sucks . . . you’ll notice strategically positioned individuals wearing ‘Homeless Hotspot’ T-shirts.”
BBH says it simply wants to offer the homeless a new way to cash in on today’s technology.
The homeless are instructed to stand in a certain area and let “customers” come to them. It’s suggested that users pay their human service providers $2 per 15 minutes, although any donation is accepted.
Customers must be within 30 feet of the homeless person to get the service.
Homeless New Yorkers were split over the idea.
“I wouldn’t do it because I can make 10 to 12 dollars an hour here panhandling. From that to maybe $2 a person is a long jump,” scoffed Robert Johnson, 48, who uses a wheelchair and was working Grand Central.
But homeless Kevin Tucker, 55, who was shining shoes outside Grand Central, said, “If [Johnson] won’t do it, I will!
“I’d do it in a second. Out of every 20 people who sit down at my stand, at least six are on their iPhone or their BlackBerry or something trying to get Internet. I see it as a business opportunity. And you’re giving me a shirt, too? I have no problem with it.”
There were 13 people from a shelter in Austin participating.
“They’re trying this new invention now . . . to help the homeless that want to participate and try to see if we can move this up to be more successful and more profitable for a lot of people,” said one, a man named Clarence.
Critics flocked to Twitter to denounce the project as inhumane.
“Straight from a horror story: human ‘homeless hotspots’: SXSW is where tech, pop culture and bad taste meet,” tweeted Lindsey Becker.
Radia defended the project.
“Homelessness is actually a subject being discussed at SXSW, and these people are no longer invisible,” he said on the firm’s Web site.
Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland and Frans Koster