Mayor Bill de Blasio has a new plan to expand broadband internet to everybody—but no target date for when it could happen.
After years of attempting to expand universal broadband coverage and a failed Bloomberg-era deal with Verizon to close the digital divide, the de Blasio administration announced its new "Internet Master Plan" on Tuesday.
The new plan lays out how the city will expand broadband internet access to New Yorkers who have only have internet access in their home or on their phones—a reality for some 40 percent of residents. Eighteen percent lack access on both, according to the de Blasio administration.
Some 1.5 million New Yorkers don't have broadband access at home or on their phones.
"The digital divide is unacceptable," NYC Chief Technology Officer John Paul Farmer told Gothamist. "We see this as the best blueprint for how the city can address some of these root challenges at the core of the digital divide, where we need better infrastructure and better affordability."
Under the plan, the city would call on private companies to respond to requests for access to city-owned property—like on rooftops or lightpoles—to build out internet infrastructure to expand broadband internet across the city. The estimated cost of all the infrastructure is $2.1 billion.
Nearly 38 percent of Bronx residents don't have broadband internet at home, the highest in New York City.
But the new plan doesn't set a deadline for universal broadband internet.
Previously, the de Blasio administration had set a goal of 2025 to ensure all New Yorkers had internet in the administration's 2015 OneNYC goal—but it was scrapped in the OneNYC plan released last year. Farmer said dropping the target year was due to changes in the federal government, after President Donald Trump was elected.
"That's an added challenge," said Farmer. "But we're not stopping. We're not letting that dissuade us." The city's "blueprint" is aimed at expanding broadband to everyone without federal government assistance for the time being.
With broadband subscription prices ranging from $50 to more than $125, the divide is worse for low-income families; 46 percent of households in poverty don't have broadband internet at home.
In the Bronx, nearly 38 percent of residents don't have broadband internet at home. Brooklyn and Queens have the starkest gaps in fiber optic infrastructure "where a lack of accessible conduit or utility poles limits opportunities for new services," according to the plan.
The new plan comes two years after the city sued Verizon for failing to meet its 2014 deadline to install additional Fios cables under a 2008 deal to expand the service to every household in the city. An audit in 2015 found the city still had 40,000 pending requests for Fios service.
A timeline for the de Blasio administration's "Internet Master Plan."
The de Blasio administration estimates that expanding broadband internet would lead to 165,000 new jobs and a $49 billion increase in personal income by 2045.
"Providing equitable broadband service to all New Yorkers regardless of where they live or how much they make is vital to ensuring everyone has the basic tools they need to succeed," de Blasio said in a statement.
