Gotham Gazette

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broadband access

broadband access

  • How Health Care, Tech, and the New Federal Infrastructure Law Must Connect

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    Getting health help through infrastructure (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    President Biden and Congress took a significant step in shoring up access to health care by enacting the infrastructure bill.

    The COVID-19 crisis shined a spotlight on broadband inequity and its impact on access to health-care services. While our country leapt forward on digital health, some of the neighborhoods and families who need it most were left out.

    In July 2020, EmblemHealth surveyed New Yorkers and found nearly one-third of Black-led and almost

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  • Further Deregulation of 5G Technology Won’t Close the Digital Divide

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    Broadband for All (photo: Phillip Kamrass/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)


    Just before the new year, a representative of a little-known telecommunications infrastructure company, Crowne Castle, made the case in an op-ed at Gotham Gazette that the key to closing the digital divide in New York State is more deregulation.

    No one would disagree with the author’s assessment of the underlying problem: the pandemic confirmed, in

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  • A Universal Internet Guarantee to Bridge the Digital Divide for Every New Yorker

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    A plan for internet access at school and home (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    The coronavirus pandemic has shown all of us the importance of a reliable high-speed home internet connection, whether for remote learning and working from home or for gathering virtually with loved ones. There is a common cliché that “the virus doesn’t discriminate,” but the reality is that coronavirus disproportionately harms low-income communities of color impacted by

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  • De Blasio Administration Pledges to Finally Address City's Persistent 'Digital Divide' with Universal Internet Access

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    Mayor de Blasio at a LinkNYC kiosk (photo: Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    As the pandemic forced New Yorkers to shelter at home, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration launched several efforts to assist those who lacked the necessary access to the internet to adapt to working and learning virtually. But there remains a deep digital divide across the city, particularly in terms of lack of access in low-income communities of color, creating significant challenges for students, residents of homeless shelters and public housing, and others.

    According to city data, 40%

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  • Coronavirus Widens Digital Divide, But Creates Opportunity to Finally Bring All Into 21st Century

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    Students and laptops, eyeing the digital divide (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Among the many lessons the coronavirus outbreak is teaching us about our society is that we are not prepared to live in the 21st century, particularly residents in low-income communities with little or no access to much-needed technology.

    This century is a time of continued uncertainty, in which established norms change overnight and disruptions are being regularly caused by natural and man-made disasters. Our largely interconnected globe means that the spread of information,

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  • T-Mobile-Sprint Merger Will Help Those Who’ve Been Left Behind in the Digital Age

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    Mignon Clyburn, the author, left (photo: @MignonClyburn)


    Wireless broadband should reach communities of color at the same time it reaches most of the U.S. population.

    Why do I say this…or is the question really, why am I still saying this in 2019?

    While serving nine years as a Federal Communications Commissioner, I saw firsthand how wireless broadband access expands access to jobs, enriches education, and deepens political engagement. Losing out on wireless broadband opportunities today increases the risk of us losing out on just

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  • Officials Discuss Next Steps in Bridging Digital Divides, Including Online Census

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    (photo: governor's office)


    Leaders in civic technology, including elected and appointed government officials, appeared at a forum Monday to discuss the necessary next steps to bridge New York’s gaps in internet access and digital literacy.

    It is essential, they said, that New Yorkers not only have access to the web, for a variety of reasons including job and housing opportunities, but that they are skilled enough to use it. And both gaps must be bridged, they explained, not only in the state’s rural areas, but also in urban

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  • Super-Fast 5G is Coming to the Five Boroughs, But City Officials Aren’t Sure When

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    (photo: Lisette Voytko)


    As new lightning-fast networks are launching around the country, New Yorkers are looking at how “5G” technology may impact the city.

    Government officials, technologists, academics, activists, and others are grappling with the pros and cons of implementing 5G, which includes download speeds 10 times faster than current smartphone connections and has the potential to allow many more devices to communicate simultaneously, greatly reducing lags in service. The overall effect would be a speedier, more seamless experience while

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