A partnership between Newark Fiber, Citizens Bank, and developer Adenah Bayoh will bring up to 15 years of free internet service to residents of a new apartment building in Newark, New Jersey.
Last week, Telecompetitor spoke with Bayoh and Newark Alliance Chief Innovation Economy Officer and Director of Broadband for the City of Newark Aaron Meyerson about the project.
Bayoh, who grew up in New Jersey, owns several restaurants — including four IHOPs — in addition to her work as a real estate developer. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bayoh saw several Newark residents come into her IHOPs with their children, not because they were hungry but because the restaurants offered free Wi-Fi.
“I started talking to some of the customers and asking, ‘Does the building you live in have Wi-Fi?’ ‘No.’ ‘Does your apartment have Wi-Fi?’ ‘No, because you have to pay for it,’” Bayoh said.
“This picture started to form for me: that there was a digital divide. Depending on where you live, the ZIP code, the place, the type of building, and all these things, you don’t have access to internet. And if you do, it’s an extra financial burden for you. It is often looked at as a luxury when we live in a world where it is a necessity.”
Bayoh said she asks herself three questions in her development work: (1) How are the outcomes different for people in my building versus somewhere else? (2) What is my social responsibility? (3) Will this community be better off if this project exists than if it doesn’t?
Early on, Bayoh received support from Enterprise Community Partners and their Equitable Path Forward program, which is described as a “$3.5 billion nationwide initiative to help economically and socially disadvantaged developers gain access to capital and resources,” according to its website.
“In 2023, I became the first African American woman in New Jersey to win a 9% tax credit,” Bayoh said. (The tax credit made partnering with her very attractive to potential investors.) In her conversations with Enterprise, Bayoh discussed the digital divide she witnessed in Newark and told them she wanted to address it.
From Dream to Reality: Newark Fiber and Free Internet
Bayoh approached Citizens Bank for funding to create a new apartment building, called Southside View. Part of the funding request was to provide free internet to residents of the building, and Citizens was willing to contribute.
Newark Fiber — a public-private partnership and an initiative of Invest Newark, the city’s economic development organization — was called on to bring internet connectivity to the building.
Meyerson described the neighborhood where Southside View is located as a digital desert, the type of place where “There’s usually a monopoly, or an oligopoly where there’s one or two providers charging whatever they want for whatever speeds.”
Newark Fiber primarily connects the downtown core, public facilities, and other community anchor institutions, but part of their work is also to bring internet to households and businesses. “Generally, we provide super-fast, gigabit speeds at below-market rate,” Meyerson said.
In connecting the Southside View building to fiber internet infrastructure, Meyerson said Newark Fiber is now able to connect other blocks along the route. And the setup for residents of Southside View couldn’t be easier.
“We are providing a connection to the building, and we have routers in every single unit,” he said. “So, a tenant moves into their unit, they give us a call, we flip a switch, and it’s on for them. There’s no additional setup required.” Meyerson added that residents will have access to Gigabit speeds: “We’re not throttling this connection in any way.”
Bayoh — and the initial press release — described the project as providing 15 years of free internet to Southside View residents, though Meyerson said 10 years. When asked about the discrepancy, Meyerson said he believes the length will depend on how long Citizens Bank’s investment will last. Bayoh said Citizens Bank gave $500,000 to provide both free internet and free tutoring for children who live in Southside View.
“Through our research, we found that the most dangerous time for our inner-city kids is between the hours of 3 and 6:30 p.m.,” Bayoh said. “That’s when they’re out of school and the parents are not home, so the half million covers tutoring from 3 to 7 p.m.”
Meyerson said that, whether it ends up being 10 or 15 years or somewhere in between, it’s a boon for residents. “10 years or 15 years is enormous. That’s a kid’s entire schooling period.”
Digital Equity and Public-Private Partnerships
Both Bayoh and Meyerson emphasized the importance of digital equity. “A little kid growing up in this building will not know internet as an obstacle, because it’ll be provided to them,” Bayoh said.
“You’re not just investing in the building,” Meyerson said. “It’s all the people, right? All 40 families will now have access to free internet. That’s a cost they don’t have to worry about. It creates less stress for everybody that lives there. All sorts of psychological financial barriers are removed when you do something like this.”
He also spoke to the power of Newark Fiber’s public-private partnership. In addition to hiring a local broadband company to lay fiber for the Southside View project, the partnership brings other benefits to the city. Though Newark can’t regulate internet pricing, through Newark Fiber, they have been able to introduce competition by offering less-expensive connections in places where national providers were the only option.
With one project, Newark Fiber partnered with Newark-based fixed wireless provider Andrena to offer $12-per-month internet service. “The other vendors [in that area] — Optimum and Verizon — are lowering their costs as well.” Meyerson called these “creative levers of partnering.”
The word about Southside View’s internet is getting out: Recently, a handful of Newark residents were spotted outside the building and, when a property manager asked if they needed something, they said, “No, my phone just works better when I’m closer to your building.”
“It goes to show that this thing that we thought was just helping a building is ping-ponging like wildfire throughout the community,” Bayoh said.
There are plans in the works for another building just across the street from Southside View. Bayoh said she expects free internet to be part of her future development projects. Meyerson said Newark Fiber is already on board for the new building.
Could this kind of project work in other communities? Bayoh thinks so. But it takes commitment.
“Be bold, be steady, and be patient. Disruption is not easy, but it’s necessary to be impactful. It’s not for the faint of heart; it’s for the heart of hearts.”
