So the goal is to stand up to you guys right now.

Okay.

Oh.

Okay.

All right.

No problem.

No problem.

All right.

I don't hear the bells chiming outside, but it is 11 o'clock per my phone.

So we will get this committee meeting started.

This is a there they go.

Okay.

This is a committee meeting for neighborhood preservation for just a update pre-budget decisions for the broad brand, the community broadband program.

With me today, I have Counselor Hudson, Counselor Nave, President Piniagua, Councilor Monto.

I thought I saw somebody else.

Wasn't somebody else wear?

Well, that's it for now.

So we will just jump right in if you want to give us um your name just evaded me.

Yes.

Jen.

Jen to Jen, you could say whatever your title is, because I'm not sure if it's sure.

Um, and then just give us a little background.

Sure, yeah, happy to.

Um, so um I'm Jen Tift, I'm the director of strategic initiatives um in the mayor's office.

And um, and yeah, happy to give you all a little bit of background, although I think you're all pretty um pretty familiar with with the program, um, and where we're you know, focusing today and and where we kind of see um see this heading and happy to answer questions.

So um, so I think as everyone remembers, you know, back to the early days of the pandemic, you know, there were obviously lots of um concerns, not just here, frankly, but all over the country and the world about um the digital divide in many communities and how that really impacted pretty much every aspect of life, and it just became so much more apparent during the pandemic.

Um, you know, especially for accessing educational and healthcare services, which were obviously super key during that time.

Um, you know, we were obviously looking at the data um around Syracuse, we noticed and and had been, you know, recognizing frankly for a few years at that point that we were one of the worst digitally connected cities for mid-sized cities in the US.

Um at that time, uh more than a quarter of our households had no source of internet, including cellular connectivity.

Um actually when you looked at it just by the uh most uh the the lowest income census tracks, it was actually close to 50% of households without internet access, which um when you think about that today, it's just that's kind of mind-boggling.

Um and then unfortunately, about one in three of our K through twelve students were also without you know, high higher speed internet at home.

Um so you know, we really recognized we needed to try to do something about this, and at that time, you know, this was five years ago or so now, it's kind of crazy how how time flies.

But we were fortunate because we did have resources that were not previously available to cities like ours to try to actually directly address this head on.

The other thing I'll say, which you know, we were you know, kind of looking at as well and acknowledging is that from the city's perspective, we also didn't have a lot of you know direct investment in uh telecommunications network infrastructure as a city, you know.

The only place we really had fiber optics was under this building, you know, basically connecting this building to City Hall Commons at the time.

Um so you know, as a city in terms of just operating ourselves and for the resilience of our own operations, you know, we relied pretty heavily then and and frankly we still do today on third-party internet providers.

So outside of you know, connectivity in this building, if we need to connect over at the parks, you know, headquarters or at any of our firehouses, we pay you know, the private market for those services.

Um, all of that, you know, really is kind of the backdrop to in 2023.

And I think at this at this point, everyone will remember there was an affordable connectivity program at the federal level that actually allowed us to offer internet for free.

Um and we were really truly targeting um both the the least connected locations in the city as well as you know those very low income households that we were really trying to help uh you know during the pandemic.

So that was sort of how we got started.

Um about a year and a half later, we actually were successful in um being awarded a 10.8 million dollar grant from the state of New York to then expand that effort.

So in the in the handout, you'll notice a map on the first page, all of the areas shaded in blue, which is essentially like the entire midsection of the city.

Um those are the areas that we are now able to offer service in.

Um and so it's about 40% of the city, about um 24,000 households that actually thank you.

Would you mind?

Yeah, perfect.

Thanks, Nature.

Um so uh so yeah, so we've we've been obviously operating for about two years, we've been expanding that service.

We are like I said, um, able to connect uh you know, an area that includes about 24,000 households, um, which is a pretty significant amount.

Um, and and as of right now, we've connected over 1700 um residents.

The vast, vast majority of them, even today are still kind of the lower income income qualified residents.

And so um, as the program is structured today, we actually provide a subsidy to keep service at a $15 a month level for those customers.

Um when we get into some of the costs that that is one of the things that frankly drives the city's cost just in terms of operating dollars.

So when they sign up for it, do they just have one choice?

It's $15 a month or they're right now, yes.

There's there's a single level of service, and because we're participating in uh basically a federally sponsored program, um, we have to provide a minimum of a hundred megabytes per second um upload and download.

So um so we have a single service tier, we don't have you know multiple tiers at this point, um, and then just a single price level.

So it's $36.99 if you are uh uh family usually, but then if you do qualify based on your income level, that amount is basically discounted to 1495, I believe, technically.

How long is that locked in for Jim?