Mayor targets digital divide
Mayor de Blasio unveiled plans Wednesday to increase high-speed internet access to underserved neighborhoods by using city-owned resources like streetlights as a way to bridge the city’s digital divide.
The city plans to spend approximately $157 million on contracts with telecommunications companies to bring affordable broadband service — including the latest 5G technology — to up to 600,000 New Yorkers, including 200,000 who live in public housing.
“The digital divide has been a problem for a long time, but now we see just how urgent it is to close that divide,” de Blasio said.
“It is part of our economic comeback, making us competitive in the world. We have to have the latest technology to be competitive.”
For months, de Blasio’s administration has fielded criticisms about lack of access to broadband service as many New Yorkers have been forced to work from home and thousands of public school students have had to learn remotely due to COVID.
According to the city’s Internet Master Plan, which was issued in January 2020, 1.5 million New Yorkers — about 18% of city residents — are without an internet connection.
Under the plan announced Wednesday, de Blasio said, the city would make 7,500 streetlights available for telecom companies to install connections.
The city is also issuing requests for proposals with incentives to minority- and women-owned businesses, and expects to hire “multiple” internet service providers to keep connectivity costs low.
De Blasio blamed former Mayor Mike Bloomberg for his handling of the city’s broadband connectivity, saying that a prior city contract with Verizon had been too favorable to the tech company.
“It was a contract that was very friendly to Verizon,” de Blasio said.
“They theoretically made commitments to fuller access and then didn’t do it. We had to fight very hard to get that substantially fixed, but it’s not what it should have been a long time ago. And I think this is a story of, unfortunately, companies not doing the right thing for working people and for people of color.”