Report finds many NYC households lack broadband subscription, choice

New York City’s chief technology officer has released a new report – Truth in Broadband: Access and Connectivity in New York City – that details the scope and quality of broadband access in the city. The report finds that 31 percent of NYC households lack a home broadband subscription with “pronounced inequalities” among income groups and other demographics, as well as other findings related to customer choice and performance.

The report found that 69 percent of NYC households have two or more choices of high-speed broadband providers, including Verizon’s FiOS, Charter’s Spectrum, and Altice’s cable service.

New York City sued Verizon for breaking its 2008 promise to build FiOS service to every home in the city by 2014. A city audit of Verizon’s buildout found a quarter of NYC households were unable to get FiOS service as well as “a litany of corporate incompetence,” including more than 40,000 requests for service pending, “75 percent of which have remained outstanding for 12 months or longer.” More than three years after its buildout was supposed to be completed, nearly one million NYC households still do not have access to Verizon’s FiOS service.

The report also found that, while most New Yorkers have at least one option for broadband service, large swaths of upper Manhattan, south Bronx, and central Brooklyn lack gigabit-level service. In addition, 44 percent of small business have no gigabit service option. “The Internet should be fast and reliable, and the quality should improve over time,” the report concluded. “Wide disparities in performance levels can cause divides comparable to the one between having a connection and having none.”

Links:

Truth in Broadband: Access and Connectivity in New York City (NYC Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, Apr. 2018)

NYC court filings detail Verizon’s broken FiOS promises (Speed Matters, July 21, 2017)