With The Stroke of A Pen > Affordable Internet

Straight from The Verge: A Good Thing

New York State just passed a law requiring ISPs to offer $15 broadband

Governor Cuomo signed a new bill that caps prices at $20 for 200Mbps down

By Alex Cranz Apr 16, 2021, 4:55pm EDT

The Verge |

Internet should become a lot more affordable in New York after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that requires all Internet Service Providers operating in New York state to offer a $15 a month broadband option for low-income consumers.

According to NY Assembly member Amy Paulin (via Bloomberg), the average price of broadband in New York is currently $50. This new bill caps the price at $15 for regular broadband and $20 for high-speed broadband, but only for those who qualify as low income. That’s still over 7 million people in 2.7 million households according to a press release from Cuomo’s office.

This is a remarkable move toward making broadband internet the affordable utility most people treat it as. Cuomo’s office told The Verge that for $15 a month ISPs must provide the greater of two speeds: either 25 Mbps down, or the speed of the ISP’s existing low-income broadband service. . .

In addition to capping the price on internet for low-income households, Cuomo also launched a new website, the Affordable Broadband Portal, to help people find affordable internet in their area. He also announced a partnership with the Ford Foundation and Google founder Eric Schmidt’s Schmidt Futures to create the ConnectEd NY fund. The goal of the fund is to provide free internet access to approximately 50,000 students in economically disadvantaged school districts. It’s expected to operate through June 2022.

Cuomo has passed a number of popular pieces of legislation in the last month—including the legalization of recreational weed use.

> A cynical person might interpret this latest, and extremely good move, as another effort to distract from the growing number of scandals surround Cuomo.

But a good thing is a good thing regardless of the motivation, and this appears to be a very good thing.