UPDATE Inside Towers readers learned earlier this month that residents of Manhattan’s Upper East Side have successfully protested the construction of 17 5G/WiFi connectivity kiosks. The 32-foot structures were planned by CityBridge as part of the LinkNYC project, which is turning former pay phone sites into WiFi hotspots. 4,000 hotspots are planned, almost 2,000 have already been constructed, and many of the remaining 2,000 will support 5G radios. Neighborhood activists are saying they’d like 5G, but can wait until it comes with a less intrusive pole design.
Construction on some of the poles has been delayed indefinitely, while others have reportedly been canceled. It’s a setback for CityBridge, a joint venture between Boldyn Networks and outdoor advertising company Intersection.
It could also be a setback for thousands of New Yorkers who don’t live on the Upper East Side. Starting in 2020, CityBridge was required by its franchise agreement to build 90 percent of new structures in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens and Harlem. Those neighborhoods are expected to get installations on the same schedule as Manhattan, and for every Manhattan pole deployed, three are required to be built in the other areas. (CityBridge can presumably backload those builds a bit to reach its 90 percent requirement.)
CityBridge may be sticking to its schedule in other neighborhoods, but the number of kiosks it’s required to build at any given time appears to go down as Manhattan builds get delayed. Outside Manhattan, the connectivity might be much more important to residents than the pole design. Each LinkNYC pole is connected to fiber and power, and delivers free public WiFi and free landline phone service. According to Boldyn Networks, 15 million people have subscribed to the WiFi network so far. (That’s almost twice as many people as there are living in all five NYC boroughs).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Boldyn surveyed the WiFi network subscribers and learned that 30 percent of them had no other access to the internet. Some New Yorkers buy repeaters and extenders to bring the WiFi signal into their homes, according to Boldyn’s Victoria Lamberth, the company’s Chief Development Officer for Connected Communities.
Even for New Yorkers who do have wired internet service, reliable free public WiFi can be an attractive alternative. Most apartment buildings are served by just one ISP, so if the service is subpar, customers don’t have other options.
New York City officials now know that for residents of at least one neighborhood, the CityBridge structures are not compelling. But for people in other parts of the city, this connectivity is critically important. New York’s “digital deserts” are the reason the city initially contracted with CityBridge to build connectivity kiosks, and city officials must now look for a way to honor neighborhood preservationists without threatening that vision.
By Martha DeGrasse, Inside Towers Contributing Analyst
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