New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams offered a long-term map of his “Internet for All” effort, which would treat municipal Internet services as “akin to a public utility,” according to a statement.
“In the Internet age, we cannot afford to be disconnected, yet many can’t afford to connect,” Williams said in the statement. “The Internet today is as foundational and essential as any other utility, but our city has yet to treat it as such, and communities are being cut off with high prices and slow speeds.”
The public advocate has a non-voting seat on the New York City Council, along with the right to introduce and co-sponsor proposed laws. The job’s responsibilities include what the office calls the “fight for equitable access to quality housing, education and economic opportunity.”
The advocate also has oversight duties for city agencies, investigates citizen complaints and plays a role in committee and commission appointments.
Williams’ general idea is to use existing infrastructure and new “pathways” to create a more accessible door to the digital world for city residents — particularly those who live in the Bronx or other areas that are relatively “disadvantaged when it comes to Internet access compared with the other boroughs of the city.”
The Bronx has the city’s highest percentage of households below the federal poverty line — about 28 percent — with more than a third of them lacking broadband access.
The Public Advocate report on bringing more Internet access to the city says that 25 census-defined city neighborhoods “had no commercial fiber provider on at least a quarter of their blocks.”
That report also found that Internet bills in the Bronx and Brooklyn can amount to 40 percent of household electric bills even though users tend to have the slowest average Internet speeds in the entire city.
On average, a person in the Bronx pays nearly $80 per month for 100/20 Mbps broadband, compared to $56 in Manhattan, according to the report.
While fiber represents the “gold standard” when it comes to NYC Internet access, lower-income areas tend to rely on traditional cable, wireless and mobile. That tends to mean low speeds and lower overall reliability, according to the report.
The plan spans up to 15 years.
Early work would focus on annual reporting and enforcement of existing access deals and creating a task force and drawing up feasibility studies.
Then comes development of a “municipal fiber backbone network through purchase and construction,” and creating an access application program and “sliding-scale fee structure” for users.
Community education and partnerships with “technology-focused organizations” also would take place as the effort gains steam.
Over seven to 15 years from inception the city would run fiber-to-the-premises pilots and make sure major capital projects include installation of fiber conduits to spread access.
The plan included no specific funding figures but called for grants, city financial help to nonprofit Internet service providers, bonds and using money that would otherwise go to Big Apple Connect, one of the city’s previous programs designed to boost digital equity.
The contract for Big Apple Connect runs out in 2028 and “the city can reallocate those funds to instead build permanent Internet infrastructure,” according to the report.
The report estimates that Big Apple Connect will cost New York City at least $114 million over the next three years.
“While the city has taken some important steps in recent years to renew infrastructure and reach people, including through public-private partnerships that have had real impact, we can go further,” the report states.
