New York began enforcing its low-cost internet law on January 15, requiring broadband service providers with over 20,000 subscribers to offer plans as low as $15 per month.
The low-cost internet program has been in the works since 2021. The program was part of the Affordable Broadband Act, which was passed under former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Last month, the United States Supreme Court announced they would not hear a challenge to the New York law, which set the stage for New York to begin enforcing the law this week. In April 2024, before the Affordable Connectivity Program was discontinued, associations representing large and small broadband providers opposed the New York low-cost internet program.
New York’s low-cost internet requirement is consistent with the goals of current New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who established the ConnectALL initiative in 2022.
Last week, Joshua Breitbart — Senior Vice President of New York’s Empire State Development, which is tasked with fulfilling the ConnectALL initiative — sat down for an interview with Telecompetitor (coming soon). Breitbart spoke of the importance of statewide access to and adoption of internet service. The New York low-cost internet program is one way the state hopes to reach this goal.
“There’s so much more to the governor’s vision for ConnectALL than BEAD,” Breitbart said, referring to broadband expansion funds from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. He said that, with the low-cost internet program and other programs, New York hopes to create “a broadband market everybody can participate in, so we have robust participation and all New Yorkers share in that economy.”
It remains to be seen what the fallout of New York’s low-cost internet program will be. C-NET and Ars Technica reported that AT&T stopped offering its fixed-wireless home internet product, AT&T Internet Air, on January 15 in response to the New York law.
