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Free internet for NYCHA residents

Big apple connect | nyc housing authority (nycha), nyc office of technology and innovation (oti), 1. how it works.

NYCHA residents without existing home internet can sign up for home internet and basic cable TV for as low as $0/month with Optimum or Spectrum. Existing Optimum and Spectrum customers will have their bills reduced to as low as $0.

• Launched in September 2022 to ensure that NYCHA residents have access to free, fast, reliable, and safe internet.
• Sign up for Big Apple Connect with either Optimum or Spectrum. The service provider you sign up with depends on where you live.

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2. Determine Your Eligibility

More ways to get help with this program

Get more info about Big Apple Connect .

2. Determine your eligibility

You can enroll in Big Apple Connect if you live in any of these NYCHA developments .

3. How to Apply

3. How to apply

Here are your options..

Apply by phone

Call your cable provider (Optimum or Spectrum).

• Optimum : 866-580-1410
• Spectrum : 866-960-1754

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Free internet, cable TV for NYCHA residents as New York City launches program

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- New York City launched "Big Apple Connect" on Monday, bringing free high-speed internet to NYCHA residents in what is the nation's largest free municipal broadband program.

Mayor Eric Adams and Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser announced the citywide launch after a successful pilot program.

The landmark digital equity program will make free high-speed internet and basic cable TV available to approximately 300,000 New Yorkers living in more than 200 NYCHA developments by the end of 2023.

The program was initially piloted at eight public housing developments across the five boroughs, including at NYCHA's Langston Hughes Houses in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where officials made the announcement.

It has now been expanded to more than 100 developments.

Since the pilot's debut last month at Langston Hughes, more than 200 existing customers of Optimum have been automatically converted and 120 new subscribers have been added.

Nearly 350 Langston Hughes units - or approximately two-thirds of households at the development - are already enrolled in Big Apple Connect.

"A 21st-century city like New York deserves 21st-century infrastructure, and, today, we continue our quest to bridge the digital divide with the landmark rollout of Big Apple Connect," Adams said. "For too long, lower-income communities, immigrant communities, and communities of color have been ignored when it comes to accessing the critical digital tools to help them succeed."

Big Apple Connect will provide residents of NYCHA developments a free bundle that consists of in-home, high-speed internet connection, including a modem and router; basic cable TV service, including a cable box and remote control; and common area Wi-Fi hotspots, selected in consultation with NYCHA.

After requesting proposals earlier this year from existing New York City cable TV franchisees, the city entered into three-year agreements with Altice (Optimum) and Charter (Spectrum), which will collectively cover the majority of developments owned and managed by NYCHA. The city is continuing to negotiate with Verizon as a possible third franchisee. OTI will be billed directly for all residents enrolled in 'Big Apple Connect' for the three-year term.

"Broadband is no longer a luxury, but a necessity that all New Yorkers should have access to," Adams said. "That's why by the end of next year, more than 200 NYCHA developments will have access to the free high-speed internet and cable TV, giving approximately 300,000 New Yorkers access to the essential tools to live productive lives. Something as simple as providing free, accessible Wi-Fi can change the life of a New Yorker, and Big Apple Connect will link our city to the future."

NYCHA residents will not be billed anything for these services, and existing customers of Optimum and Spectrum living in NYCHA developments where Big Apple Connect is active will be automatically enrolled in the program and will only be billed for additional services they choose to purchase directly.

Residents will receive email notifications and mailers explaining why their bills were lowered, as well as information on Big Apple Connect.

Residents without existing service will have the opportunity to sign up directly though Spectrum or Optimum or may attend on-site enrollment events conducted by the companies in partnership with the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation.

An estimated 30-40% of NYCHA residents lack broadband, according to cable service providers.

Once its rollout is complete, Big Apple Connect is projected to be the largest municipal program to cover the cost of internet for public housing residents in the nation.

NYCHA residents enrolled in Big Apple Connect will also be able to use the federal Affordable Connectivity Program benefit to save money on their cell phone bills. The Affordable Connectivity Program provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward internet or cellular data service for eligible households and is limited to one monthly service discount per month.

In addition to the Langston Hughes Houses in Brooklyn, the other pilot sites in the five boroughs included:

--Bronx: Mott Haven Houses

--Bronx: Patterson Houses

--Brooklyn: Brownsville Houses

--Manhattan: Polo Grounds Towers

--Queens: Queensbridge Houses

--Queens: Woodside Houses

--Staten Island: Stapleton Houses

Information about current and future eligible NYCHA sites will be available on OTI's Big Apple Connect website .

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Big Apple Connect

Need something else?

• Affordable Connectivity Program  for information about a federal program that helps low-income households pay for broadband service and internet-connected devices

NYC’s Office of Technology and Innovation officially launched Big Apple Connect in September 2022 to ensure that NYCHA residents have access to free, fast, reliable, and safe internet.

NYCHA residents without existing home internet can sign up for Big Apple Connect with either Optimum or Spectrum (service provider will depend on where you live). Existing Optimum and Spectrum customers will have their bills reduced to as low as $0, as monthly internet and basic cable TV charges are eliminated.  

NYCHA residents in eligible developments can receive the following for free:

• Internet connections with download speeds of up to 300 Mbps
• Wireless router
• Basic cable TV
• Cable box and remote control

Residents of select NYCHA developments are eligible to enroll in Big Apple Connect. More developments will be added throughout 2023.

More information, including the full list of eligible NYCHA developments, is available online. You can also get assistance by phone.

Learn more about Big Apple Connect.

If you live in an eligible NYCHA development, you must contact the service provider that covers your development.

• Agency: Optimum
• Phone Number: (866) 580-1410
• Business Hours: Monday - Saturday: 10 AM - 7 PM
• Agency: Spectrum
• Phone Number: (866) 960-1754
• Business Hours: 24 hours, 7 days a week

NYCHA Tablet Program

With the majority of NYCHA residents now receiving free internet service through Big Apple Connect, the additional internet service provided through the tablet program for older adults living in NYCHA has ended. 

All program users will be able to keep their tablets.

Residents living in Big Apple Connect-eligible developments will be able to connect their tablets to the internet through their current at-home internet service provided by either Spectrum or Optimum. 

While most residents at NYCHA developments qualify for free internet through the Big Apple Connect program, those who do not are encouraged to apply for the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) . ACP provides a $30 monthly discount toward internet service.

If you have any questions, send an email to [email protected] with your name, address and phone number.

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Watch CBS News

"Big Apple Connect" program bringing free internet to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers

By CBS New York Team

Updated on: September 19, 2022 / 10:00 PM EDT / CBS New York

NEW YORK - Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers will soon get more access to the internet. 

Mayor Eric Adams announced the launch of a new program that will provide free Wi-Fi to certain NYCHA residents. 

As CBS2's Nick Caloway reports, Daniel Fields has lived in the Langston Hughes Houses for 30+ years. 

"The service is excellent," he said. 

He's had internet plans before, but he's a single dad, and money is tight. 

"And what happened was the price was a little too high. So what happened? I'd have it, I'd lose it," he said. 

Now he's connected, free of charge. 

"It's a major help-out for us financially-wise, because I really couldn't afford it," he said. 

Fields is benefiting from the new "Big Apple Connect" program , officially launched by Adams Monday, after a successful pilot program. It provides free high-speed internet and basic cable TV to about 300,000 residents living in more than 200 NYCHA developments. 

"Something as simple as providing free, accessible Wi-Fi can change the life of a New Yorker. And Big Apple Connect is connecting New York City to the future," Adams said. 

The mayor said access to the internet is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. 

Matthew Fraser, the city's chief technology officer, said kids who did not have access to the internet suffered learning loss during the pandemic. 

"It's more than just broadband. It's broadband, it's economic development, it's healthcare, it's education. And it's giving people access to a critical resource like water," Fraser said. 

The program will serve families across all five boroughs. Ciprian Noel has four kids who depend on the internet for school and play. Now they have reliable access. 

"My kids, they come home, they do their homework. They go straight to the internet to do their homework with no problem. They get their homework done, and after that, they go and play some of the Xbox," Noel said. 

All this free Wi-Fi doesn't come cheap. The city will pay a little north of $30 million a year for the service.  

City officials say the funding for that program came from another program which has recently been canceled. 

Nick Caloway contributed to this report. 

The CBS New York Team is a group of experienced journalists who bring you New York web coverage on cbsnews.com.

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NYC Expands ‘Big Apple Connect' to Deliver Free Internet, Cable to 300K+ New Yorkers

The program provides nycha residents a free bundle that consists of in-home, high-speed internet connection and basic cable tv service., by nbc new york staff • published march 23, 2023 • updated on march 23, 2023 at 10:39 pm, what to know.

‘Big Apple Connect’ provides NYCHA residents a free bundle that consists of in-home, high-speed internet connection, basic cable TV service, and common area Wi-Fi hotspots, selected in consultation with NYCHA.

• City officials announced the program is expanding by nearly 50 percent.

The program provides the broadband service 202 NYCHA developments, reaching about 300,000 New Yorkers. However, with the announced expansion, an additional 67 NYCHA developments will receive the service, reaching an additional 40,000 households.

New York City is expanding by nearly 50 percent "Big Apple Connect" -- the nation's largest municipal broadband program which provides free internet and basic cable television service to hundreds of NYCHA developments.

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“Six months ago, I promised that we would bridge the digital divide for NYCHA residents, and today I’m proud to deliver on that commitment ahead of schedule,” Mayor Eric Adams said. “With this expansion of ‘Big Apple Connect,’ the nation’s largest municipal broadband program to more than 200 NYCHA developments, more than 300,000 New Yorkers now have access to internet and cable TV for free. Internet isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity, and today we’re proud to connect hundreds of thousands more New Yorkers to opportunities and to the future.”

The city has entered into three-year agreements with Altice (Optimum) and Charter (Spectrum), which will collectively cover the majority of developments owned and managed by NYCHA.

Get Tri-state area news and weather forecasts to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York newsletters.

Existing customers of Optimum and Spectrum in NYCHA developments where ‘Big Apple Connect’ is active will be automatically enrolled in the program and will only be billed for additional services they choose to purchase directly.

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Adams launched ‘Big Apple Connect’ last fal l, promising to install the services in more than 200 NYCHA developments by the end of 2023.

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NYC Tackles Digital Divide With New Free Internet Program

Through its new consolidated office of technology and innovation, nyc is working to expand connectivity access through various technology-related initiatives, including its most recent advancement: big apple connect..

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‘Internet isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity’ – Mayor announces ‘Big Apple Connect’ for NYCHA residents

Mayor eric adams announced the citywide launch monday of big apple connect – a digital equity program that will make free high-speed internet and basic cable television available to thousands of nycha residents..

News 12 Staff

Sep 19, 2022, 5:00 PM

Updated 617 days ago

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Russia, Blocked From the Global Internet, Plunges Into Digital Isolation

Russian authorities and multinational companies have erected a digital barricade between the country and the West, erasing the last remnants of independent information online.

• Share full article

By Adam Satariano and Valerie Hopkins

Adam Satariano reports on tech in Europe, and Valerie Hopkins reports on the countries of the former Soviet Union, including Russia.

Even as President Vladimir V. Putin tightened his grip on Russian society over the past 22 years, small pockets of independent information and political expression remained online.

Any remnants of that are now gone.

As Mr. Putin has waged war on Ukraine, a digital barricade went up between Russia and the world. Both Russian authorities and multinational internet companies built the wall with breathtaking speed. And the moves have ruptured an open internet that was once seen as helping to integrate Russia into the global community.

TikTok and Netflix are suspending their services in the country. Facebook has been blocked. Twitter has been partly blocked, and YouTube’s future is in doubt. Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco and others have pulled back or withdrawn entirely from Russia. Even online video games like Minecraft are no longer available.

The actions have turned Russia into a walled-off digital state akin to China and Iran, which tightly control the internet and censor foreign websites and dissent. China’s internet and the Western internet have become almost completely separate over the years, with few overlapping services and little direct communication. In Iran, the authorities have used internet blackouts during protests.

Russia’s cleaving off is a defeat for the once-held Western belief that the internet is a tool for democracy that would lead authoritarian countries to open.

“The vision of a free and open internet that runs all over the world doesn’t really exist anymore,” said Brian Fishman, a senior fellow at the New America think tank and former director of counterterrorism policy at Facebook. “Now the internet is lumpy. It has choke points.”

The internet is only one piece of Russia’s growing isolation since it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The country has been largely cut off from the world’s financial system, foreign airlines are not flying in Russian airspace and global access to its oil and natural gas reserves is in question.

But the digital cutoffs stand out as the culmination of attempts by the Russian authorities to tame what was once an open and freewheeling internet. For years, officials stiffened a censorship campaign at home and tried to move toward what is known as a “sovereign internet.” The war led multinational companies to take the final steps.

While Russia is paying a stiff economic cost for being cut off, the digital isolationism also serves Mr. Putin’s interests. It allows him to clamp down further on dissent and information that does not follow the government line. Under a censorship law passed last week, journalists, website operators and others risk 15 years in prison for publishing “misinformation” about the war on Ukraine.

“This is going to feel like a return to the 1980s for people who lived in that era, because suddenly information is back in the hands of the state,” said Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks, a London organization that tracks internet censorship.

Internet censorship efforts in Russia have grown for the past decade, said Tanya Lokot, an associate professor at Dublin City University who specializes in digital rights in Eastern Europe. Mr. Putin first cracked down on government critics and independent news outlets online. Russia then began a campaign to install new censorship equipment to block or slow down access to websites like Twitter.

But the final break since the invasion began has jarred Russians who used the internet to stay connected with the wider world, get independent information and build their careers.

Aleksei Pivovarov, who quit his job on state television almost a decade ago in the face of growing censorship, said he had experienced a “second birth” when he started producing news shows and distributing them on YouTube. Almost three million people subscribe to his YouTube channel , where he and a team publish investigations and news reports that are unavailable on state media.

“I was completely sure that this part of my life was over forever, and I would never work as a journalist again,” he said in a recent interview. “I never thought before I came to YouTube that it was possible.”

Now the work risks putting Mr. Pivovarov in jail — or out of business. YouTube, which is owned by Google, last week blocked all Russian accounts from making money from their videos and barred Russian state television outlets from being shown across Europe. YouTube could be one of the next targets to be blocked by Russian regulators, experts predicted.

Mr. Pivovarov, 47, who is based in Moscow, said he planned to keep broadcasting on YouTube despite the risks. But he said it was unclear how long he could keep going.

“For the moment I do plan to work in Russia,” he said. “How this may change in the future, especially if YouTube will be blocked, I don’t know.”

Unlike China, where domestic internet companies have grown into behemoths over more than a decade, Russia does not have a similarly vibrant domestic internet or tech industry.

So as it is cordoned off into its own digital ecosystem, the fallout may be severe. In addition to access to independent information, the future reliability of internet and telecommunications networks, as well as the availability of basic software and services used by businesses and government, is at risk.

Already, Russian telecom companies that operate mobile phone networks no longer have access to new equipment and services from companies like Nokia, Ericsson and Cisco. Efforts by Russian companies to develop new microprocessors were in doubt after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the largest maker of essential semiconductors, halted shipments to the country. Yandex, Russia’s largest internet company, with a search engine more widely used than Google in Russia, warned it might default on its debts because of the crisis.

“The whole IT, hardware and software market that Russia relies on is gravely damaged right now,” said Aliaksandr Herasimenka, a researcher at the University of Oxford’s program on democracy and technology. The Russian authorities could respond by loosening rules that have made it illegal to download pirated software, he said.

The Ukrainian government has also pressured internet service providers to sever access in Russia. Officials from Ukraine have asked ICANN, the nonprofit group that oversees internet domains, to suspend the Russian internet domain “.ru.” The nonprofit has resisted these requests.

Denis Lyashkov, a self-taught web developer with more than 15 years of experience, said Russia’s censorship campaign was “devastating” for those who had grown up with a less restricted internet.

“I was 19 years old when I bought my first computer, and it was the best investment in my life,” said Mr. Lyashkov, who emigrated to Armenia from Moscow in the past week because of the growing restrictions. “When I started, it was a whole new world. There were no borders, no censorship. Everyone could say anything they wanted.”

Mr. Lyashkov said that before he had fled Russia, the company where he worked received a demand from the government to install new government certificates on its website, a technical change that could allow regulators to monitor traffic and potentially close the country’s internet to all but Russian or other approved websites. Last year, Russia tested taking such a step.

Some Russian internet users appeared to be finding ways around tighter restrictions. Demand for virtual private networks, technology that lets people access blocked websites by masking their location, soared more than 600 percent since the invasion, according to Top10VPN, a service that tracks usage of the technology.

But other decisions by multinational companies to punish Russia’s aggression could make those circumvention tools harder to obtain. Many Russians who have VPNs pay for them using Visa and Mastercard, which have blocked payments in Russia.

“That move only helps the Kremlin in my view, unfortunately,” Mr. Pivovarov said.

Kate Conger contributed reporting.

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of an Oxford University researcher. He is Aliaksandr Herasimenka, not Herasmenka.

How we handle corrections

Adam Satariano is a technology reporter based in London. More about Adam Satariano

Valerie Hopkins is a correspondent based in Moscow. She previously covered Central and Southeastern Europe for a decade, most recently for the Financial Times. More about Valerie Hopkins

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

U.S. and allied intelligence officials are tracking an increase in low-level sabotage operations in Europe  that they say are part of a Russian campaign to undermine support for Ukraine’s war effort.

Some American-made, precision-guided weapons supplied to Ukraine have proved ineffective on the battlefield , their accuracy badly diminished by Russian jamming efforts.

Ukraine has begun releasing prisoners to serve in its army , part of a wider effort to rebuild a military that has been depleted by more than two years of war and is strained by relentless Russian assaults.

Striking a Chord: A play based on a classic 19th-century novel, “The Witch of Konotop,” is a smash hit among Ukrainians who see cultural and historical echoes  in the story of what they face after two years of war.

Europe’s Defense Industry: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine jolted Europe out of complacency about military spending. But the challenges are about more than just money .

Putin’s Victory Narrative: The Russian leader’s message to his country appears to be taking hold : that Russia is fighting against the whole Western world — and winning.

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .

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The NYCHA Journal

The NYCHA Journal has informed and inspired residents since 1970, covering the news, contributions, and uplifting stories of the NYCHA community while providing the latest information on Authority initiatives.

Free Internet Coming to More Than 200 NYCHA Developments

On September 19, Mayor Eric Adams and NYC’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Matthew Fraser announced the citywide launch of Big Apple Connect — a landmark digital equity program that will make free high-speed internet and basic cable TV available to approximately 300,000 New Yorkers living in more than 200 NYCHA developments by the end of 2023. Mayor Adams and CTO Fraser announced the program – initially piloted at eight NYCHA developments across the five boroughs, and which has now been expanded to more than 100 developments – at Langston Hughes Houses in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

“A 21 st century city like New York deserves 21 st century infrastructure, and, today, we continue our quest to bridge the digital divide with the landmark rollout of Big Apple Connect ,” said Mayor Adams. “For too long, lower-income communities, immigrant communities, and communities of color have been ignored when it comes to accessing the critical digital tools to help them succeed. Broadband is no longer a luxury, but a necessity that all New Yorkers should have access to. That’s why by the end of next year, more than 200 NYCHA developments will have access to the free high-speed internet and cable TV – giving approximately 300,000 New Yorkers access to the essential tools to live productive lives. Something as simple as providing free, accessible Wi-Fi can change the life of a New Yorker, and Big Apple Connect will link our city to the future.”

“ Big Apple Connect is an innovative program that will enhance the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers living in public housing by providing them access to necessary broadband,” said First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo. “I congratulate Chief Technology Officer Matt Fraser and all of our partners in the administration on achieving this milestone today to address the digital divide.”

“ Big Apple Connect is a game-changer for today’s New Yorkers living in public housing on par with the advent of utilities like heat or hot water,” said CTO and Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) Commissioner Matthew Fraser. “This citywide broadband initiative ensures that New Yorkers need not defer their dreams — or fail to meet basic needs — because they lack the resources to pay for internet or live in a pre-war building. Our city’s students, senior citizens, parents, and job seekers who need in-home, high-speed internet access the most will experience tangible day one benefits that enrich their lives for years to come. Big Apple Connect stands as a testament to New York City’s national leadership in promoting digital equity under Mayor Adams.” 

“The launch of Big Apple Connect represents the most significant investment to date in modernizing the Authority’s broadband infrastructure for the 21 st century,” said NYCHA’s Interim CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt. “The high-quality internet service enabled through this program will help ensure that young people have access to online educational instruction, working parents have access to vital career opportunities, and senior residents can continue to engage with their loved ones. We commend the mayor and the Office of Technology and Innovation for their continued investments in increasing digital equity for public housing residents and look forward to implementing this initiative across NYCHA campuses citywide.”

“In 2022, in the wealthiest city in the country, no one should go without access to the internet. It is vital to our daily lives, to succeeding in school and in work, and is how we stay connected as a society, which is why Big Apple Connect is so exciting,” said Chief Housing Officer JessicaKatz. “Bridging the digital divide is at the heart of building a more equitable city, and I want to thank Chief Technology Officer Fraser for putting NYCHA residents at the heart of this effort.”

Big Apple Connect will provide residents of NYCHA developments a free bundle that consists of in-home, high-speed internet connection, including a modem and router; basic cable TV service, including a cable box and remote control; and common area Wi-Fi hotspots, selected in consultation with NYCHA.

After requesting proposals earlier this year from existing New York City cable TV franchisees, the city entered into three-year agreements with Altice (Optimum) and Charter (Spectrum), which will collectively cover the majority of developments owned and managed by NYCHA. The city is continuing to negotiate with Verizon as a possible third franchisee. OTI will be billed directly for all residents enrolled in Big Apple Connect for the three-year term.

NYCHA residents will not be billed anything for these services. Existing customers of Optimum and Spectrum living in NYCHA developments where Big Apple Connect is active will be automatically enrolled in the program and will only be billed for additional services they choose to purchase directly. Residents will receive email notifications and mailers explaining why their bills were lowered, as well as information on Big Apple Connect . Residents without existing service will have the opportunity to sign up directly though Spectrum or Optimum or may attend on-site enrollment events conducted by the companies in partnership with OTI.

An estimated 30 to 40 percent of NYCHA residents lack broadband, according to cable service providers. Once its rollout is complete, Big Apple Connect is projected to be the largest municipal program to cover the cost of internet for public housing residents in the nation. NYCHA residents enrolled in Big Apple Connect will also be able to use the federal Affordable Connectivity Program benefit to save money on their cell phone bills. The Affordable Connectivity Program provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward internet or cellular data service for eligible households and is limited to one monthly service discount per month.

The site of Mayor Adams’ announcement today – Langston Hughes Houses – has served as one of eight select pilot sites, where best practices on community engagement and promotion were assessed. Since the pilot’s debut last month at Langston Hughes, more than 200 existing customers of Optimum have been automatically converted and 120 new subscribers have been added. Nearly 350 Langston Hughes apartments – or approximately two-thirds of households at the development – are already enrolled in Big Apple Connect .

In addition to the Langston Hughes Houses in Brooklyn, the other pilot sites in the five boroughs included:

• Bronx: Mott Haven Houses
• Bronx: Patterson Houses
• Brooklyn: Brownsville Houses
• Manhattan: Polo Grounds Towers
• Queens: Queensbridge Houses
• Queens: Woodside Houses
• Staten Island: Stapleton Houses

Information about current and future eligible NYCHA sites will be available on OTI’s ‘Big Apple Connect’ website .

“This program is wonderful,” said Ciprian Noel, Resident Association President at Langston Hughes Houses. “As a single father of two kids in college, it helps me save money and provides essential internet service in my home. I encourage more NYCHA residents to sign up for Big Apple Connect because it helps us connect with people. I am grateful to Mayor Adams and CTO Fraser for thinking about the residents of Langston Hughes as they implemented this program.”

Photo caption: Announcing Big Apple Connect at Langston Hughes Houses in Brooklyn.

• ← Residents: How You Can Celebrate Climate Week with NYCHA
• New Nonprofit Program Offers Free Golf Lessons for NYCHA Youth  →

How internet sleuthing in unsolved University of Idaho slayings can be 'extremely dangerous'

As authorities continued to release conflicting statements on the killings of four University of Idaho students , mounting questions around the case have fueled frustration toward police  and given rise to amateur detectives determined to crack it. 

Mourners gathered at the University of Idaho for a vigil Wednesday, the same day the Moscow Police Department described a statement from the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office that “one or more of the occupants were undoubtedly targeted" had been a "miscommunication." The department had also described the homicides as a "targeted attack" following the incident.

With limited details on the case available to the public, many have taken it upon themselves to search for answers.

The hundreds of tips and calls provided to local, state and federal investigators as a result of cyber sleuthing can help — both to pinpoint plausible leads and to rule out potential suspects — but former FBI agents and law enforcement experts say they more often than not are a hindrance to an investigation, divert resources and attention, and can even be harmful by ensnaring innocent people.

"With what police, with all types of training and all of the resources to help solve just about any type of crime, have at their fingertips, it's kind of hard to believe that anyone just banging around the internet is going to be able to solve the crime that we couldn't," Pete Yachmetz, a retired FBI special agent in Florida with three decades at the agency, said. "I just don't fathom it."

But the case of Gabby Petito , a 22-year-old New York native who went missing last year as she documented her cross-country travels on social media with her fiancé, has become a blueprint of sorts for people fascinated by missing persons and unsolved crimes.

Intrigue surrounding Petito's disappearance exploded on social media with a dedicated hashtag racking up more than 1 billion views on TikTok posts as users theorized what happened to her. Petito's body was ultimately discovered in a Wyoming forest. A manhunt ensued for her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, whose skeletal remains were found a month later in Florida.

Now, the homicide in Moscow, Idaho, of the four University of Idaho students — friends Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; and Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20 — has become a fresh mystery for internet sleuths to speculate over. The three female students lived in the home together with two other roommates, one of whose cellphone was used to call 911 just before noon on Nov. 13. Authorities at the scene said they found the four victims stabbed multiple times seemingly with an "edged weapon," like a large knife. No weapon has been found.

One private Facebook group about the homicides now has more than 32,700 members in which users are dissecting past social media posts the friends made before their deaths, pieced together their interactions with others on their Instagram, Facebook and Venmo accounts, and even named people who they believe could be suspects or say police should interview.

A forum on Reddit has more than 27,000 members with users posing theories and analyzing statements released by law enforcement and family members of the victims.

And on TikTok, posts with the hashtag #idahomurders have more than 94.2 million views, with users questioning if a serial killer is behind the deaths or if the homicides are linked to other similar cases of unsolved stabbings in the region.

Investigators have said the killings don't appear connected to other slayings. Initially, Moscow police told the local community there was no imminent danger and that the deaths appeared to be part of an "isolated, targeted attack." But in the following days, officials walked back that they "cannot say there is no threat to the community," and said Wednesday it is not known if the residence where the bodies were found or its occupants were "specifically targeted."

The conflicting statements have concerned students, while the conjecture based on what people have found through internet searches and social media has apparently vexed Moscow police, who said Sunday they received nearly 500 "digital media" tips to an FBI page dedicated to the case.

"There is speculation, without factual backing, stoking community fears and spreading false facts," the department said in a news release. The city's website about the case also includes a "rumor control" section seeking to tamp down unvetted information.

The Idaho State Police, which is handling inquiries about the case, did not return multiple requests for comment.

Adam Scott Wandt, an assistant professor and vice chair for technology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said it's no coincidence that the homicide case of four Idaho college students is gaining traction on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, which he attributes to advanced algorithms that are feeding these types of posts to users.

"Gabby Petito went viral because there's no doubt that TikTok was pushing that hashtag," he said.

But for every case like Petito's in which internet sleuthing can be advantageous — a YouTube video helped to establish a possible crime scene and police to focus their search efforts — there are far more in which armchair investigators are only adding to the noise, Wandt said.

In addition, crowd-sourced investigations can ruin lives, he added, as with what happened when users on Reddit, Twitter and other social media platforms incorrectly identified the suspects in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing based on photos and videos.

"It's extremely dangerous," Wandt said. "There's a Wild, Wild West aspect to all of this."

Jeremy Reagan, a University of Idaho law student who lives near the crime scene in Moscow, is all too familiar with being wrongly named.

An interview he gave to the media in which internet users said he looked suspicious went viral, and led some to believe he was involved in the students' deaths.

"The fact that I had a nervous smile on my face, people clung to that. 'Oh, he's smiling, he's proud of what he did,'" Reagan said. "But I wasn't asking to be interviewed by a reporter. She literally stopped me while I was taking out the garbage, and I had nothing to hide, so I spoke with her."

Police came to interview him this week, he said, but he made clear that he's actually the victim of online harassment and unfounded rumors in which people went through his old social media posts to try and prove a connection. He recently began answering questions on Reddit in order to dispel the accusations.

"After I posted my side of things, a lot of people have been reaching out and saying, 'Hey, I didn't think it was you' or 'Hey, originally I did think it was you, and after reading through your post, I realized it's not,'" he said.

He added that he understands people's curiosity and wanting to be the one who unlocks a mystery, but it shouldn't come at a cost.

"Sometimes it can help," Reagan said. "But I think a lot of the time what people end up finding or reporting to police just jams up the investigation. It's a waste of time and resources."

Erik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.

Memorial Day 2024 tech deals you can still get this weekend - Sales from Apple, Samsung, Anker and more

M emorial Day is here, and along with the holiday has come a swath of tech deals available across the internet. In addition to the typical outdoor gear we see go on sale during this time, a number of our favorite earbuds, tablets, streaming devices and other gadgets are discounted at the moment. Most of the deals we’ve curated below represented record-low prices, or the best prices we’ve seen so far all year. You’ll likely have to wait until Black Friday (or Amazon Prime Day in July) to see even steeper discounts, but nevertheless, these sales are worth considering if you have tech on your shopping list. Here are the best Memorial Day sales on tech and gadgets that you can get for 2024.

Our top picks

New and noteworthy Memorial Day deals

Best apple memorial day sales, best outdoor memorial day sales, best vacuum memorial day sales, best memorial day sales on anker charging gear, best memorial day sales on streaming services and devices, best memorial day sales on headphones and earbuds, best memorial day sales on tech gear.

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This article may contain affiliate links that Microsoft and/or the publisher may receive a commission from if you buy a product or service through those links.

Here’s why deleted iPhone photos returned to some iOS devices

Apple has broken its silence about the nudes-resurrection issue after vaguely attributing it to ‘database corruption.’.

By Jess Weatherbed , a news writer focused on creative industries, computing, and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews.

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We finally have a better understanding of why devices running iOS 17.5 started resurfacing long-deleted photos , courtesy of Apple and some third-party researchers. While Apple released the iOS 17.5.1 iPhone update to fix the issue earlier this week, attributing it to a “database corruption,” the company remained tight-lipped about what was specifically causing old files — including deleted nudes, in some reports — to start appearing on devices that never hosted them.

Elaborating on the issue to 9to5Mac , Apple says it was caused by a corrupt database entry on the device’s file system, impacting files on the devices themselves and not those that had been synced to iCloud. Those files may have been carried over from older devices when restored from a backup or during device-to-device transfer.

Apple says it doesn’t have access to photo or video files on users’ phones, and that only a small number of people were impacted

One Reddit user had previously claimed in a now-deleted post that the iOS 17.5 bug had resurfaced photos on an iPad that had been wiped and sold to a friend. Apple, however, claims this isn’t possible, telling 9to5Mac that all files and content are permanently deleted once a device’s data has been completely erased. Essentially, Apple is claiming this user either didn’t follow the correct device reset procedure or is simply lying for Reddit clout. The company said that only a small number of people were impacted by the database issue, and that Apple doesn’t have access to photo or video files on users’ phones.

Security researchers at Synactiv also expanded on the issue by reverse-engineering the iOS 17.5.1 update used to fix it. You can find a detailed explanation in their full report here , but in short, iOS 17.5 added a migration routine responsible for scanning and re-importing photos from the filesystem. The routine was deleted by Apple’s recent update because it caused old files to be re-indexed on the local file system and pushed back into photo galleries. 

“Based on this code, we can say that the photos that reappeared were still lying around on the filesystems and that they were just found by the migration routine added in iOS 17.5,” said Synacktiv. “Based only on this analysis, it is not possible to conclude how the photos remained on the filesystem in the first place.” The Synacktiv article then directs readers to this comment on Reddit for a plausible explanation, which includes the possibility of users saving images to both the File app and Photos app and only deleting the latter.

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Transcript: Mayor Adams Expands 'Big Apple Connect' to Deliver Free Internet, TV to More Than 300,000 New Yorkers at 200 NYCHA Developments

March 23, 2023

First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright:  Good morning. Good morning. My name is Sheena Wright. I'm the first deputy mayor of the City of New York. Is the Bronx in the house? That's right. I'm from the Bronx. Even though I live in Harlem, I claim the Bronx. I want to first begin by thanking Bronx River Houses, in the house, for being such gracious hosts and we have to thank the incredible Norma Saunders, resident association leader, and she has convened and corralled us, mayor. She kept us in check. She gets stuff done. She is no joke. I'm trying to get her to work with the City of New York because she is phenomenal.

I also want to thank other members and acknowledge them for the administration. You'll hear from Chief Technology Officer Matt Fraser in just a bit, who is the leader and driver of this work. Our chief housing officer, Jessica Katz, who's in the house, and our NYCHA executive VP and chief information officer, Patti Bayross. Where's Patti? There you are. Our interim CEO, Lisa Bova-Hiatt, is actually in DC today fighting for NYCHA, so she couldn't be here, so we want to acknowledge her as well. Also want to acknowledge Council Member Amanda Farías, who's here in the house. And Council Member Rafael Salamanca. Thank you.

Today is really, really a special day. The mayor, as he was running for office, promised to center NYCHA in the work of this administration. One out of every 16 New Yorkers live in NYCHA. If NYCHA were a city, it would be the 33rd largest city, larger than Miami, Atlanta, and many others. We appreciate, this mayor appreciates the importance of this community, so that's one of the reasons this announcement is so very exciting. Promises made-promises kept. The divide that has kept so much opportunity out of NYCHA is being torn down today. So I first want to introduce... [inaudible]. Yes, that's right…

The 110th mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams:  Thank you. Thank you so much. I have a first deputy mayor that's from the BX. From the BX. And despite what some people think, we love New York. So we want to keep that slogan going and we want to really inspire all of you to realize that this is our home and we love our city and this is our way of spreading the love the Bronx way, as we used to say in Brooklyn. But I've been here before. I'm not new to you, I'm true to you. We sat here and held meetings here to talk about important issues. Norma has been a real ally, and she's assembled the leaders throughout our entire NYCHA homes, when you have just people who stabilize our city and just want the same quality of life that others deserve. And we're excited about some of the things we are going to be rolling out that's dealing with NYCHA.

You are going to be pleased on how much we are leaning into NYCHA because we know how important it is. Bring it back to the glory days of where it was stable, safe housing, and it's so important that we continue to do so. And this is a portion of it. We saw it during the pandemic, Covid-19, how the lack of broadband, broadband is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity. When you think about communication, telemedicine, young people were given iPads that they couldn't log onto. It was the hidden divide that many people ignored, and we said no to that when I brought on an amazing chief technology officer in Matt Fraser. Ironically, I met Matt at an incident in Brooklyn where I was borough president. His family member, who was a peacemaker, was shot and killed on a handball court. He was an innocent bystander.

And I met Matt, and as the creator would have it, our paths crossed again, and I found out what an amazing person he is, not only professionally but personally. And he dug into this. There were some naysayers saying it was not possible to do. He came to see me and stated, "We have to have full access, broadband, high-speed access, for NYCHA residents. No matter how much people say it is too expensive, it is too expensive not to do it." And really thank you for having the vision, Matt, and making this happen. And you just really have to understand the NYCHA cheerleaders in this administration. For the first time in the history of the housing plan, we included NYCHA in our housing plan. This has never been done before and it was only because of our chief housing officer.

She does not sit down in a conversation about housing without saying, "What about NYCHA? What about NYCHA?" Jessica, you have been singing the NYCHA song for a long time. A lot of people have been singing off-key, you are now telling them they got to sing the same song. Jessica is our chief housing officer, she has been an amazing advocate for NYCHA, and we want to thank you for continuing to make sure NYCHA's part of our plan. And no one has lobbied me more 'cause I want to lay down this foundation because I don't want people to think that this is just about the broadband. No one has lobbied me more for on-the-ground, quality-of-life, NYCHA issues. He has nagged me for almost a year now. That cannot be. The city-wide NYCHA rep. Where's Tony? Tony Herbert, right here. Tony. You're going to see a lot of him.

Tony is just, he's everything NYCHA. That's all he talks about. He's going to really be part of our overall plan to ensure that the NYCHA residents are getting the responsiveness that you deserve. And we're going to look at some of the plans and some of your thoughts. And listen, look, I got it. I know that throughout the years you have been denied, ignored, promises made-promises not kept. I got it, I got it. And I understand how you feel. I've been moving throughout my NYCHA homes for a long time, and I know how folks feel. But we are going to turn the corner. And we going to do the best we can. We're not going to always get it right. There are going to be moments we're going to say, "Darn it, we dropped the ball on that." But the commitment is real and it's authentic. It's real and it's authentic.

And I spent a lot of time communicating with the residents of NYCHA to make sure that we can land the plane. And you are extremely fortunate. Because of redistricting, Councilwoman Farías has represented this area at the highest level, and for her now to transition because of the new drawing of the lines and turn it over to my amazing brother, Councilman Salamanca, just a real Bronx-ite. He's going to be representing this area, advocating on behalf of you to make sure things are done right. And that brings us to why we're here today. Communication is the clear indicator of how well you move forward as the city. You have to be able to communicate, and broadband is an opportunity to do so. Six months ago, we promised that we were going to bridge the digital divide for NYCHA residents, and today, I'm proud to say, with this impressive team, we made the promise and we kept the promise.

And I want people to start looking at the things I said on the campaign trail and the things we have done. That is why I want all of you to sign up for direct communication to me because you would think, by some of the things you read, you would think we had no victories, and our victories are unbelievable. I promised that we were going to do dyslexia screening because of my dyslexia. We're doing dyslexia screening in all of our schools. I promised we were going to raise Earned Income Tax Credit to put money back in your pockets. We raised the earned income tax credit. I promised that we were going to put money in the pockets of family's members with childcare. We were able to get billions of dollars for childcare.

Look at the things that I promised on the campaign trail, and then go down the list, and you'll see the things this guy promised are the things that this guy delivered. And you're going to continue to see that, to show how we are bringing home the victories. This is the promise we made, this is the promise we kept. 

We're expanding Big Apple Connect to over 200 NYCHA housing and around 300,000 New Yorkers. The Big Apple Connect is bigger than ever. More than a quarter of a million New Yorkers now have access to internet and cable, and they're using my favorite four-letter word: free. Free. We're seeing that no longer NYCHA residents are being disconnected, they're now being connected. And the fearfulness of getting online, Googling whatever you want to find out how good your mayor's doing, sending us messages, you now have access. Communicating with your loved ones and families is just so crucial. And think about this for a moment, this is the largest free municipal-sponsored broadband program for public housing residents in the nation, the largest in the nation. And today it's grown by nearly 50 percent. 

We are delivering broadband across the five boroughs and getting more New Yorkers online than ever before. This would help residents get greater access to healthcare, education, employment opportunities. We're getting ready to roll out a centralized way to look for what jobs are available. We have thousands of jobs that are available, and we want you to be able to go online, look them up, knock on the bedroom door of your son and say, "Hey, go down and take this job application. Get your butt up, go take this job application," like my mom used to do to me. And so we are going to centralize all of these jobs on hand. It's no longer going to be complicated. Yeah, see I just identify with that, she said. [Laughter.]

So we're going to centralize all the jobs in the private sector, in the public sector. So you could go to one place using your new broadband, log on, do a search, and know exactly where to go for what jobs are available. This is going to be an amazing opportunity for us. This is going to develop our digital literacy skills because we have to do it... This universe of broadband is here and it's here to stay, and we must be a part of it. Big Apple Connect is connecting New York City to the future. And again, I want to thank my entire team in general, but specifically what Matt has accomplished in such a short period of time, of moving the ball forward and really doing what we promised. We made the promise, we're going to keep the promise and we are going to stay dedicated to the promise. Thank you very much. Good job.

First Deputy Mayor Wright:  Next up our Chief Technology Officer, some people call him superstar, Matt Fraser.

Matthew Fraser, Chief Technology Officer, Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation:  Well, good morning everybody.

Audience:  Good morning.

Fraser:  Oh, let's do that one more time. Good morning everybody.

Audience:  Good morning!

Fraser:  All right, all right. So I don't quite know how I follow the man, the myth, the mayor. And what the people of New York may not know, you may not see every day is that you have a person that runs a city that's an advocate of the people. Every day we make a decision, every day we do something. The mayor's always focused on cost of an action. When we don't do something, what does it cost the people that live in the city? How do we feel the impact?

So although we're here talking about broadband today, broadband is just one component. One of the mayor's favorite sayings, I've taken it on personally because I say it is, if you don't inspect what you expect, everything is suspect. I think, right? Also, if it doesn't make dollars, it doesn't make sense, then it's nonsense, why are we doing nonsense.

There's a number of these, but I think the reason why, if you don't inspect what you expect, when we took the helm in January of '22, there was a program called the Internet Master Plan that was focused on getting broadband into communities like this. The program was launched in 2020 around the same time where we had the explosion with Covid. Now you have people that were shut in. You have kids that were sent home with devices that just didn't work. And what happened in communities like this, Black and brown communities were disproportionately affected, and we had a lot of death in communities like this, because you didn't have access to things like, how do you get telemedicine? You're shut at home, the transportation options unlimited and you can't get access to a doctor.

How do you maintain social and emotional bonds? How do you communicate with your friends? Imagine a kid that gets sent home because schools are now closed, you can't go in person and now you have no way to communicate with your peers so that you can maintain those bonds, you can maintain that peership. And forget about maintaining peership, you can't compete from an education perspective because you can't build on the skills that everyone else that has access can. This is why when the mayor says, "This is not a luxury, it's a necessity," because if you don't have it, you can't survive. Which is why when we stepped in January, the first thing that we said was, let's make the conversation about broadband access and public housing a conversation of the past, which is why within nine months from being in office, we launched the first phase of Big Apple Connect, where we brought broadband into over a hundred developments, and which is why today we come and commit, and we've launched broadband in over 200 developments.

And what that means is for the residents of Bronx River Houses today, your next bill — you don't even have to do anything if you're already a customer — your next bill is now, if you have basic TV and high speed broadband, your next bill is going to be $0. It's free. And for those of you that have higher quality of services or high levels of service, you're now going to have a credit that reflects what we're covering to make sure that that broadband right is available.

And the key of what we've done here is we haven't done it with some sort of voucher program that you have to come and redeem. We haven't done it with money that expires over the next couple of years. We've put it in the baseline operating expense of how the city runs. And the reason why that's important is that you shouldn't have to worry when you come in on how you get hot water or heat. You also shouldn't worry about how you get broadband. And that's what we're dealing with today.

In addition to that, broadband and access isn't enough. We've brought this here, we've given you access. Now we have to follow up behind and bring skills training so that it can give you the tools to use the connectivity that we've provided. For us, we want to make sure our public housing community is part of the strongest part of the city, it's the backbone of the city, and the families that come here that start here deserve access to critical services so that they can compete and they can stay here.

But I'd like to sincerely thank the mayor for his commitment to the people of the city, and thank him for also making sure that every day we are our best selves. And in addition to the mayor, the first deputy mayor, of course, is another big advocate. And I'd be remiss if I didn't thank counsel for the partnership and also the city's chief housing officer. As the mayor said for the first time in the city's history, we have someone that's dedicated in ensuring that not only NYCHA has advocated across the city, but it's also taking beyond the city to the state, to the federal government, and making sure that we bring the best that we can to NYCHA. But thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.

First Deputy Mayor Wright:  Thank you, Matt, now you see why we call him that. I do want to just underscore one thing. NYCHA, if it were a city, would be the 33rd largest city, larger than Miami, Atlanta, the size of Boston. In 15 months giving access to that whole city is how you get stuff done. That is remarkable, absolutely remarkable. And that's what the mayor has charged us to do. We are keeping a list of all your sayings. We're going to make a little book of it, the Eric-isms, it's the GSD book. So very, very excited about that. And now, next up, our leader, Norma Saunders. I mean, she's absolutely incredible. We're grateful for your leadership.

Norma Saunders:  Thank you. Good morning everyone.

Saunders:  Is that exciting news?

Audience:  Yes.

Saunders:  Free?

Audience:  [Applause.]

Saunders:  Free.

Audience:  Thank you.

Saunders:  I'm one that's suffered from having to pay high costs and cable and internet service and stuff. And for it to be free, I'd just like to thank you and thank you on behalf of the Bronx River residents. But on that note, first of all, one thing, I'm just going to take two seconds. Why does Mayor Adams always come and our gym is never ready for him? I don't understand, but next time you come, we're going to make sure you're in the gym. We're definitely going to make sure. 

But definitely this is amazing news. No, Bronx River did not get sold. Everybody kept asking me. The news was free cable, free internet. It is a necessity now, whoever thought there would be a necessity, but it is a necessity where now we have our college students that can actually get access to college applications, scholarships. We have seniors that we can teach on how to maneuver the internet and not get scammed, but understand how to go in. Basic TV that we don't have, some of our seniors and some of our residents don't have basic channels to find out what our mayor is doing, what our Council people are doing. These are the things that show that the mayor is moving forward with New York City housing. And I'm an advocate of NYCHA, staying on top of them and making sure that we get what is deserved. Once you pay your rent, you should have the best quality of life.

And having this capability is amazing. And not having to dig in your pocket for those that live paycheck to paycheck, for those that are on very low income like our seniors, like people that have public assistance because they have children and they're disabled. And this is amazing news. So I'm glad you guys came out. You can register today if you want. It's amazing. So I'm just happy, and I'm happy that I can share this with the residents of Bronx River Houses. And I'd just like to thank all the amazing people that made this happen for us. It shows that they're trying to build NYCHA where it should be and where we should be competing with Manhattan, where we should be proud of where we live at, where we lay our head at, where we come home and say, this is where I live at. I can come here and look at the TV. I can come and help my children with homework.

So this is amazing. And once again, I take my hat off to the mayor and to all our people that made this happen, this is something that I just get emotional sometimes. I'm not going to get emotional because I think y'all don't want to see that side. But mayor, thank you so much. Thank you, council, my Council person now, and my future Council person. I feel blessed though because I'm between both of them and I love them both. So I'm really blessed. I'd like to thank Optimum.

Optimum is here. So they're here to service you. Our Assemblyman, he's not here, but definitely got representation all the time. And definitely my board from NYCHA, my board is here as well, NYCHA’s here. And the community, first of all, let's give yourself a round of applause. Without you, none of this could happen. So I'm going to ask a big favor of you guys. Let's give it up for this panel, a big round of applause for making this happen for Bronx River Houses and for NYCHA, period. Thank you so much.

Mayor Adams:  Thank you.

First Deputy Mayor Wright:  Thank you so much, Norma. Thank you. And now we're going to hear from some of your leaders. Council Member Amanda Farías.

City Council Member Amanda Farías:  Good morning everyone.

Council Member Farías:  Good morning. I forget when I say that in this space in Bronx River, y'all respond. I'm Council Member Amanda Farías and I want to welcome everyone to Council District 18. I do have Bronx River this year. Council Member Salamanca, I know he's eager to get one of the best NYCHAs that we have in the district, but I welcome all of you.

Today's announcement on the expansion of Big Apple Connect is an exciting one to be a part of, and I'm glad we're here today in community with our mayor and with my council colleagues. This past November, I helped kick off the Big Apple Connect program at Sonia Sotomayor Houses, which was one of only three locations that had access to the program in my district. But not anymore. Free broadband will now be available at 25 additional NYCHA campuses citywide, including two of the largest campuses in Council District 18, right here at Bronx River and also over by Castle Hill Houses.

Shout-out to our incredible tenant association president, Norma Saunders. And I'll give a shout-out to Jeanette from Castle Hill. For the Bronx River and Castle Hill communities, the expansion of Big Apple Connect is crucial. In 2023, Wi-Fi is a necessity, but still there's such a large digital divide. Free broadband opens up doors for Black and brown communities like mine that were never open before, allowing us to apply for remote jobs that offer flexibility, connect with our city agencies, actually retain what we're learning in school, connect with our families overseas and so much more.

The one thing I also want to not forget is, during the pandemic, what we keep saying back here is folks had to go outside of our community center, outside to our libraries to find free broadband, making the home not where you can get your essential service. And now with this program, the mayor has helped us make your home where your essential needs are being met, and that's critical in this moment.

So with that, I just want to say thank you to Mayor Eric Adams for expanding this program across the city, but especially here in my district and the Bronx. And I look forward to continuing to work together for Big Apple Connects expansion. Thank you so much.

First Deputy Mayor Wright:  Thank you so much. And now you have your new Council person… Your next Council person.

Council Member Farías:  We're going to have to battle this out.

First Deputy Mayor Wright:  Okay, Bronx battle.

City Council Member Rafael Salamanca:  Buenos dias, buenos dias. Good morning. It's a hot one in here, so I'm going to be quick. I just want to thank Mayor Adams and your administration for ensuring that you have not forgotten about NYCHA and the necessity to ensure that we have broadband, that we have Wi-Fi.

I have, I would say, one of the third-largest NYCHA portfolios in the City of New York. This program has been successful in Melrose Houses, which I represent, and I am pretty sure, well, I am confident that it's going to be just as successful as it is here at Bronx River Houses. And I know that you've had a great council member representing you, but I will work just as hard to follow her footsteps to ensure that you get the funding and the program that you need so that you can continue to thrive. [Speaks in Spanish.]

First Deputy Mayor Wright:  Thank you. You guys are lucky, a lucky group to have such wonderful leaders. I also want to acknowledge Councilwoman Julie Won. Did you want to say a couple words?

City Council Member Julie Won:  Sure.

First Deputy Mayor Wright:  Okay.

City Council Member Julie Won:  Good morning.

Council Member Won:  It's so good to see you. My name is Julie Won. I've traveled here from Queens. I represent Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Astoria, where I represent Queensbridge Houses, Ravenswood Houses, and Woodside Houses. And thank you to Council Member Amanda Farías, as well as Salmananca, who's going to represent this district.

But we would not be here today without our mayor, Eric Adams, and our CTO, Matt Fraser, as well as our deputy mayor and everyone who is here because this is truly revolutionary. When we started out this journey, what we have done is something that other cities have not done in the United States or outside. Because what you see right here where it says 000, that means that CTO Fraser and Eric Adams, our mayor, said it is not enough for us to give you free Wi-Fi, we have to remove the barriers that prevent people from having it which is all the registrations, all the paperwork, all of the benefits that our government may give you have all of these barriers when we're busy working three jobs, have children to take care of, grandchildren to take care of. We don't have time for the paperwork.

And that is why our CTO and his team said, "We're going to remove that." We're going to partner with contractors, these vendors who already have the majority of the share of these NYCHAs. And that way you will automatically be registered for this free program. So that way when you receive your bill now, it will literally say 000. And that is revolutionary. So we want to make sure that you know that money is going back into your pockets.

That is now money that you could use to buy more food for your children. And that is money that you're investing in yourself that the mayor has allowed you to reinvest in your families. So thank you so much for this program. We are so incredibly grateful to be part of the city. And the City Council supports this program and we want to make sure that not only you have free Wi-Fi, but cable TV so that anyone who is sitting at home during a pandemic or an emergency ever again, even if you don't know how to use a computer, you don't know how the internet works, all of our seniors will have access to TV cable so that you know what's going on outside and you will never be alone. Thank you so much.

First Deputy Mayor Wright:  Thank you, Councilmember Won. And thank you for underscoring 000, free. When the mayor said his favorite four letter word, I was like, "What is he going to say?" I was worried. But he said free. Woo. Thank goodness. So thank you. Thank you, Bronx River. I just want to say we will be back. As the mayor said, our chief housing officer has made NYCHA the centerpiece of our housing agenda and there are going to be many, many more announcements to come. So thank you all so much.

Mayor Adams:  And before we do, on topic, on topic, I had dinner last night with many of our Council persons and I was just blown away with the depth of what Julie's, her understanding of technology. And she represents some of the largest NYCHA developments in Queens. And her advocacy for Ravenswood, for Queensbridge and some of the others, it was just really impressive at dinner last night. And we really want to partner with her as we expand the whole conversation around technology and broadband so that you don't have the inequality that you're seeing in some of our districts and really understand why this is so big.

This is the foundation of what we are doing. We got it in Albany and in federal government. Now we have to make sure you get it. You could be successful on getting all of these resources, but if they don't get to you, then we're not successful. So now we're going to allow you to, number one, have access to high-speed broadband. Then we're going to give you training on how to navigate the high-speed broadband. Matt is building out a system that's called MyCity where you should not have to fill out forms over and over again.

Once you have all of your stuff at once in our system, we should be able to just extract the data we need as you navigate government. You should be able to know about childcare, go to one place for childcare, go to one place for the benefits SCRIE and DRIE and WIC and all those other things. We don't want you filling out forms anymore. We don't want you to talk to different agencies and they have to ask you the same questions over and over again. You have to say to yourself, "How many darn times I got to give you my social security number? You don't have it?

That's what Matt is building out. We're taking away the duplication of getting the resources you deserve. And then when you do an analysis, as the councilwoman stated, start adding up what we're doing for those who are living on a margin, fair futures for those who are foster care children, reduced fare MetroCard, Earned Income Tax Credit, child care credit, giving you access to WIC and DRIE and SCRIE. You start adding up, we're saying we can't take down federal taxes, but we can find ways in the city to decrease the amount of dollars that are coming out of your pocket.

This is another one that we are decreasing. The dollars of your high speed broadband is no longer going to come out of your pocket, so it allows you to put in your households for those things that you need. This is extremely significant to the overall plan that we're putting together to make government work for you. Government has betrayed you and it's time for government to stop betraying you and working for you. And that's what this is about. We'll do a few on topics.

Question:  I have a question. My question is, how long would this be for the residents? How long would this be free?

Mayor Adams:  Yes. We are going to make sure it's always free, but here…

Fraser:  So the key here is, as I mentioned before, we wanted to create a program that wasn't going to go away in a month, a year. So what we did with Big Apple Connect is we established a minimum for the next five years. And in addition to that, we used money that was operating in the city's baseline budget. And what that means is, as the mayor says, we have to do more for the city. We have to use our resources wisely and make sure that government works for you. And that's why it's built that way.

Question:  Hi. My question is how much is this expansion costing the city? And then going forward, projection-wise, when will all the NYCHA developments have internet available? And what do those projections look like in the city budget?

Fraser:  Right, so the planned expansion, the specific dollar amounts, we…

Question:  A little louder please.

Fraser:  Oh, no worries. I'm from Brooklyn, I'm not shy. So the planned expansion covers an additional 67 developments and it takes us over 200 developments. The plan to expand to the rest of NYCHA, we're currently evaluating to see how fast we can get to some of those areas. And in many of the developments where we're not today, we already have low cost internet options from community-based organizations that are offering that. In terms of the total cost of what it looks like for the development, it depends on usage. So right now we can give you projections following on from this, based on our subscription rates, but it's going to be nebulous depending on how many people subscribe and how many people use.

Question:  Do you have a number in mind right now that you could just give us like an estimation?

Fraser:  Sure. So historically in the city's baseline operating expense, as the mayor, I said don't inspect what you expect, everything is suspect. We had $40 million baseline to support a wireless network to support city agencies. That $40 million had went to, I think maybe about less than 5,000 devices. We took that, we shut that down. Again, it was a program that we found to be ineffective and we used that $40 million baseline to cover Big Apple Connect for citywide usage.

Qyestuib:  Oh, thank you. I happen to be a product of NYCHA. So to hear all of these opportunities that are going to be opening up, it's just amazing because that makes a difference for young people.

Mayor Adams:  It does.

Question:  Access gives you an opportunity to be exposed to things that you can now explore. So in NYCHA I was in Mitchell houses, was in Riverbank. But the project experience is similar…

Mayor Adams:  It is.

Question:  In most settings. So on topic, we can't be in Bronx River and not address one of… This is where young men took their entertainment equipment from their homes and created a genre that now the world duplicates. But while we were doing that, there was some harm taking place. So just not to be off topic, but for some of the victims that were hurt in the shadows of hip hop's growth, some of the names you've heard, Afrika Bambaataa, Ron Savage.

Mayor Adams:  That's a long question, brother.

Question:  You speak directly to everything. So what would you have to say to bring balance to that situation?

Mayor Adams:  Well, and you're right. Although it's not on topic, it's off topic. But let's be clear, with some of the things that happened during the hip hop generation, it may have produced some who went on the fringe and caused a level of violence. I think that we need to be extremely reflective to understand what hip hop produced in the positive. Hip hop produced a Hakeem Jeffries, who's the first person of color to lead a house in the Congress. Hip hop produced Letitia James AG. Hip hop produced Jumaane Williams, Carl Heastie, the leader of the Assembly. Hip hop produced Andrea Stewart-Cousins. Hip hop produced DAs in the Bronx, DAs in Brooklyn, DAs in Manhattan. Hip hop produced the mayor of the City of New York. I'm a hip hop person that's a byproduct of hip hop. And so I think we need to lean into the positives of the music and I'm proud that we are doing the 50th year anniversary of hip hop.

Just like jazz, hip hop was called the devil music. People were told not to play it. Anytime when we produce a product, people want to demonize that product. But we learned that now hip hop is part of movie scores. Hip hop is what people listen to in the gyms. Hip hop is what they listen to be motivated. And so I think the legacy of hip hop is something that we all should be proud of. And I'm happy to be a person that was raised on hip hop and will continue to listen to hip hop as I fight the power.

Are you part of the We all love New York, Dana?

Question:  I think you mistook me for someone else.

Mayor Adams:  Yes, I did.

Question:  Regarding the Apple Connect, it replaces the Internet Master Plan which was originally supposed to, I guess, bridge the digital gap for 1.5 million New Yorkers. Is there still a plan to address that larger pool of New Yorkers who don't have broadband?

Fraser:  Yeah, so when you say the Internet Master Plan, I'd just like to level set expectations. It was an internet master concept. 18 months from its launch, not a single contract had been executed, not a single service had been deployed. And what we had to do is stop looking at the conceptual of what we will do and actually get stuff done. And today what we've spoken about now is 300,000 New Yorkers covered out of funds that came from the city's baseline operating expense. Now the Internet Master Plan was a $2.1 billion plan, projected where the last administration only carved out $157 million to do the first phase. Based on their projections, it would've taken four years to connect as many people as we've done in the last 15 months. So for us, beyond what we've done with public housing, we're also looking at how we can take programs like this to other subsidized housing.

So how can we get this to Section 8 recipients? How can we get it to other folks that need this kind of access? How can we work with our carriers to bring down rate plans, so the barrier for entry isn't so high? So we're working in conjunction with our MWBE, our smaller ISP providers to look at how we can get them entrances into programs like this. And then we'll also have a pilot, which will launch very soon, that's focused on a couple of new affordable housing developments where we will be putting fiber in using a concept that's sort of like the internet master plan. But does that answer your question?

Question:  Yeah.

Fraser:  And I just wanted to throw out really quick, so to the person who asked the last question, who said that you were a product of public housing. I'd be remiss if I didn't get an opportunity to thank Brett Sikoff. Brett Sikoff is one of the people that's on the team. He runs Franchise Administration, he runs programs like this for the city. And Brett is also a product of public housing. So this administration has people that represent the city, that come from public housing, that come from different areas that are advocating on your behalf. So I just wanted to make sure you knew that.

Question:  [Inaudible] the Bronx. So I want to know, when will the actual monthly bill be zero for residents? When does it start? [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: [Inaudible.]

Fraser:  So as of today, anyone that had… If you had a bill with Charter or Spectrum or Optimum, and you had basic TV and you had high speed broadband, as of today, that bill is $0. So the next bill that you see will be $0. All right?

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Analysis: New screens, old strategy. Streamers like Netflix, Apple turn to good old cable bundling

• Streaming companies are turning to bundling as a strategy to retain subscribers amid the industry’s post-pandemic slump.
• The revival of bundling is also beginning to disrupt sports TV.
• People tired of keeping track of their subscriptions to multiple streaming services will likely benefit from simpler bundling options.

The Dispatch provides fact-based reporting and commentary on politics, policy and culture – informed by conservative principles.

More streaming companies turn to bundling as the industry faces economic headwinds.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts announced on Tuesday that the cable giant will partner with Netflix and Apple to offer a new streaming bundle that includes Peacock, Netflix, and Apple TV+ at a discounted price. The news prompted another round of variations on what has become an increasingly familiar joke about streaming services: The new model for watching television is beginning to look a lot like the cable packages of yesteryear.

Streaming giants are turning to bundling as a strategy to retain subscribers amid the industry’s post-pandemic slump. “We’ve been bundling video successfully and creatively for 60 years,” Roberts said at an industry conference in New York on Tuesday. “This is the latest iteration of that.” Currently, Peacock Premium, Netflix standard with ads, and Apple TV+ would cost $23 a month—$25 after Peacock raises prices this July—to purchase separately. Comcast didn’t announce a price point for its new bundle, but Roberts claimed it will “come at a vastly reduced price to anything in the market today.”

What’s driving the ostensible competitors to partner? Netflix and Apple are looking to gain additional subscribers who are less likely to cancel their subscriptions – or churn, to use industry lingo. Comcast gets a subscriber boost to its streaming platform, Peacock, while bolstering the company’s broadband and cable TV business since only subscribers to Comcast’s Xfinity Internet and/or Xfinity TV will be able to access the discounted bundle price. 

Tuesday’s announcement is just the latest in a string of similar moves. Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) and Disney revealed last week they’ll begin offering a bundle of their own this summer that includes Max, Disney+, and Hulu. The first-of-its-kind inter -company deal follows Disney’s intra -company bundle with Disney+ and Hulu fully launched in March – Disney completed its takeover of Hulu from Comcast last fall. “On the heels of the very successful launch of Hulu on Disney+, this new bundle with Max will offer subscribers even more choice and value,” Joe Earley, the head of direct-to-consumer operations at Disney, said of the partnership with Max. 

More guidance: Best internet speeds for streaming without buffering

JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games at WBD, said the deal “will help drive incremental subscribers and much stronger retention” and “presents a powerful new roadmap for the future of the industry.” WBD had already combined its in-house HBO Max and Discovery+ services under the Max umbrella last year. 

The revival of bundling is also beginning to disrupt sports TV. Disney, Fox Corp, and WBD announced in February that they plan to launch a combined sports streaming service later this year that is accessible to ESPN+, Hulu, and Max subscribers. As Tyler Hummel wrote for the site earlier this year:

"The new sports merger comes as companies are trying new approaches to growing revenue through their subscription services, while traditional cable packages struggle to maintain their relevance.

The strength of this sports merger may be that up to this point, “cutting the cord” and switching to streaming services has meant piecing together individual services – especially with sports – to get complete access to channels offered on traditional cable packages. But those individual subscriptions add up, and the merger takes a page from traditional cable companies’ playbook."

How did the industry get to this point again? Way back when cable companies dominated TV, selling consumers a big bundle of channels and content at a higher price, sometimes with hidden fees and rigid annual contracts. Television watchers didn’t necessarily care about having access to 100-plus channels, but buying the bundle was the price of entry to get the channels they did want. More than 90 percent of TV households had a pay-TV (e.g., cable or satellite) subscription as recently as 2010, when the average monthly cable TV bill was $75 .

But Netflix – which started out as a pioneering DVD-by-mail rental company – launched its streaming service in 2007, and its subscriber base quickly shot upward . For a paltry monthly fee, you could get access to a growing library of movies and television on-demand and, eventually, original content produced by the company – all free from ads. A flood of customers became “cord cutters,” pivoting from cable to streaming. Broadcast and cable TV accounted for less than half of U.S. viewing time for the first time ever last summer, and cable companies continue to hemorrhage millions of customers each year.

The download: Everything you need to know about streaming from Reviewed

Netflix was the starting gun for the so-called “streaming wars,” and companies like Amazon, Apple, and Disney wanted in on the action as former cable customers transitioned to streaming. New entrants contributed to a glut of new content with companies spending hundreds of millions of dollars on huge hit shows like Stranger Things . The eight largest streamers currently offer close to 40,000 TV shows and films, according to Reelgood, a streaming data aggregator. But the competition has hurt profit margins and customers have proven fickle, frequently canceling their subscriptions and sometimes only resubscribing after a new season of their favorite show comes out. 

Streaming companies felt the squeeze from Wall Street in 2023 as pandemic-fueled subscriber growth dried up, and with the high-interest rate environment, investors started asking where the profits are. Netflix excepted, most streaming platforms are operating in the red as they prioritize growing their subscriber base. Peacock saw $2.8 billion in losses in 2023, and Paramount+ lost $286 million in the first quarter of 2024 alone – although that represented a marked improvement from a $511 million loss in Q1 2023. Disney has lost billions on streaming since it launched Disney+ in 2019, but its latest earnings report indicated the company is close to breaking even on streaming on a quarterly basis.

“I think what happened in the 2010s is the industry went down a very dangerous financial path of trying to invest in every type of content in every genre to try and be something for everyone,” WBD’s Perrette said last week . “And at the end of the day, we know where that led us to.” Executives at rival companies agree. “As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way, we tried to tell too many stories,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said yesterday . “Basically we invested too much, way ahead of possible returns. It’s what led to streaming ending up as a $4 billion loss.”

Streaming companies are searching for new business strategies to get them closer to the black. This includes cracking down on password sharing, raising subscription prices, introducing ads to the platforms, and now, bundling with competitors’ offerings.

• Measuring the economy under Donald Trump and Joe Biden
• How sports are shaping the future of streaming, explained 
• Duke graduates who walked out on Jerry Seinfeld's commencement speech failed Life 101

But industry analysts argue that the revival of bundling doesn’t necessarily signal a return to the rigid days of frustrating cable packages. “Some people say that this sounds just like cable,” Jason Cohen – CEO of MyBundle, a platform that helps customers find the best combination of streaming services for their needs – said in March . “But the people who say that probably haven’t had cable in six, seven years and don’t realize how expensive cable has gotten. The second thing is that the cable bundle was one-size-fits-all. There might have been two or three tiers, but it was, ‘Here is what you get,’ versus this new world of really picking and choosing what you want.”

People tired of keeping track of their subscriptions to multiple streaming services will likely benefit from simpler bundling options. “It was always a bundle,” Joe Marchese, a venture capitalist and former ad-sales executive at Fox Networks, said Tuesday . “Do you watch everything on Netflix ? No. That means that you’re subsidizing the stuff you weren’t watching.”

“But now people have to choose between a lot of different streaming packages,” he added. “And everyone is going to be in the fight to be the re-bundler. Everybody will want to be that ultimate bundle.” 

The Key Points at the top of this article were created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and reviewed by a journalist before publication. No other parts of the article were generated using AI. Learn more .

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