City & State New York

All 51 New York City Council members have signed a letter imploring Sen Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to renew funding for a vital federal program that’s helped nearly 1 million low-income households afford internet service in the city by taking up to $30 off their monthly internet bills. Money for the $14.2 billion program ran out in April, threatening the progress that had been made in closing the digital divide over the past couple years.

A Q&A with the New York City (NYC) Office of Technology & Innovation’s Brett Sikoff centered on increasing broadband accessibility via the city's Big Apple Connect program. The program has delivered free high-speed internet to 220 public housing developments across the city: that’s over 300,000 New Yorkers who now have access to the internet for free.

At the beginning of Mayor Eric Adams’ term, New York City Chief Technology Officer Matt Fraser stepped in to head up the city’s new Office of Technology and Innovation, a reorganization of the city’s technology and IT offices into one central authority.

New York is continuing to expand broadband internet access statewide through a new initiative called ConnectALL. A replacement for former Gov Andrew Cuomo (D-NY)’s New NY Broadband Program, the ConnectALL initiative is a $1.4 billion program that will use $300 million of state money and $1.1 billion from the federal government.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) vetoed a bill which would have directed the state to study whether a state-owned and operated internet service would be feasible in New York. Gov Cuomo said it was “well-intentioned” but that it would be too expensive to complete. Still, Gov Cuomo suggested that he isn’t opposed to the idea of municipal broadband. The governor said in Dec 2019 that he and lawmakers might revisit the idea of a feasibility study on municipal broadband in early 2020.

On June 2, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized the Federal Communications Commission after the release of its 2019 Broadband Deployment Report, and called for more scrutiny of data. He and other critics think the rosy picture the report paints doesn’t accurately reflect the situation on the ground. “While we live in an era of faster and faster, the reality of internet speed across New York is that it may move more like molasses than lightning,” Sen Schumer said. “The FCC has said internet speeds are up to standards in its report.