What it means for you
Big Apple Connect gives residents of 220 NYC public housing developments free high-speed internet, basic cable TV, and the equipment for both. The city pays the providers, and the program now runs through June 2028.
Who benefits: About 330,000 NYCHA residents, roughly 150,000 households, at 220 public housing developments.
If you live in one of the 220 NYCHA developments in the program, you can get high-speed home internet and basic cable TV for free. The modem, router, cable box, and remote are free too. Many buildings also get free Wi-Fi in common areas. There’s no income form to fill out. If you already had Optimum or Spectrum, you were signed up automatically and pay only for extras you choose. If you didn’t, you can sign up with the provider for your development.
The city says a household that signs up saves more than $1,700 a year on average. Before the program, internet providers estimated that 30 to 40 percent of NYCHA residents had no broadband at home.
Mayor Eric Adams launched Big Apple Connect in September 2022. In March 2023 he expanded it to 202 developments, reaching his goal of more than 200 ahead of schedule, and it later grew to 220. Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser’s Office of Technology and Innovation runs the program and pays Optimum and Spectrum directly, about $38 million a year. In September 2025 the city extended the deal through June 2028. The program has also drawn criticism. Reporting by New York Focus found that its connections were being used to link NYCHA security cameras to the NYPD’s surveillance system, which the City Council questioned at a hearing.
InternetLower costsHousing
Sources
- Mayor Adams Expands 'Big Apple Connect' to Deliver Free Internet, TV to More Than 300,000 New Yorkers at 200 NYCHA DevelopmentsOffice of the Mayor of New York City, March 23, 2023
- Mayor Adams Extends 'Big Apple Connect' ProgramOffice of the Mayor of New York City, September 29, 2025
- Big Apple Connect Extended for Three YearsThe NYCHA Journal, September 29, 2025
- NYC mayor locks in Big Apple Connect through 2028, one day before oversight hearingRoute Fifty (New York Focus), September 30, 2025
How we checked this
Drafted by Claude Opus 5.5 (Anthropic) on November 11, 2026. Checked against its sources by GPT-5.6-sol (OpenAI) on November 11, 2026, with no problems found. Confirmed the benefit, enrollment process, figures, credits, surveillance caveat, and extension through June 2028. NYC’s September 2026 open-data update still lists all 220 participating developments.
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