Dr. Larry Johnson, president of Guttman Community College; Rodney Capel, vice president of state government affairs at Spectrum; Intekhab Shakil, NYC Department of Education Chief Technology Officer; Brett Sikoff, executive director of franchise administration and broadband at NYC’s Office of Technology and Innovation ; and Joshua Schneps, CEO of Schneps Media.
“One thing Mayor Adams has done is that he afforded free broadband to all of the residents of the New York City Housing Authority. That’s over 600,000 citizens,” Garner said. “We need to bridge the gap between a tale of two cities, which we are balancing as one city, and broadband is going to go a long way in bridging that divide.”
As Big Apple Connect provides the internet at home, the DOE now provides devices such as tablets and laptops that students can essentially “rent out” from their schools on days when remote learning is in session.But more still needs to be done to get New Yorkers connected, the experts agreed.