Letter Audit Report on Wireless Internet Access in New York City Parks as provided by AT&T, Spectrum and Altice USA
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The objective of this audit was to determine whether the wireless internet (Wi-Fi) services in New York City parks provided by AT&T, Spectrum and Altice USA is operating effectively.
The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (Parks) maintains more than 30,000 acres of land across the five boroughs. This includes more than 1,700 parks, nearly 1,000 playgrounds, 51 recreational facilities, 15 nature centers and 14 miles of beaches. The Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) provides services designed to maintain the continuous, efficient and effective distribution of information technology (IT), infrastructure and telecommunications in the City. DoITT is responsible for maintaining the City’s core IT infrastructure and systems that affect delivery of service to the City’s residents, businesses, employees and visitors.
Public Wi-Fi service in New York City parks is provided by three different companies: AT&T; Altice USA (formerly Cablevision); and Spectrum (formerly Time Warner Cable). The determination of which specific parks will be provided with Wi-Fi hotspots is a cooperative decision between the service provider, Parks and DoITT in consultation with the applicable borough president.
In June 2011, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephen announced a five-year initiative to launch free Wi-Fi service in 26 locations located in 20 City parks across the five boroughs, including Bronx River Park, Prospect Park, Battery Park, Central Park, Flushing Meadows Corona Park and Clove Lake Park. In addition, in September 2011, the City renewed its franchise agreements with Time Warner Cable (currently known as Spectrum) and Cablevision (currently known as Altice USA) to include the requirement that these providers maintain the City’s Wi-Fi system through 2020 in parks across the five boroughs. The service providers created a $10 million fund to pay for the installation of Wi-Fi hotspots in City parks. Spectrum (then known as Time Warner Cable) and Altice USA (then known as Cablevision) agreed to expend $6 million and $4 million for the project respectively. Furthermore, as part of the franchise agreement renewals, the providers agreed to a variety of technology enhancements (e.g., upgrades) to public parks, community centers and the City’s telecommunications infrastructure. The franchise agreements were negotiated by DoITT and unanimously approved by the City’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee in August 2011. The agreements are expected to be maintained until July 18, 2020.
In July 2013, representatives of Parks, DoITT, Altice USA and Spectrum announced the public launch of Wi-Fi in 32 City parks across the five boroughs, including Bronx Park, Marine Park, Brownsville Recreation Center, Cadman Plaza Park, Jackie Robinson Park, Cunningham Park and Tappen Park. They also announced that additional park locations across the City would be launched on a rolling basis as a part of the program. Spectrum provides Wi-Fi services in City parks in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island. Altice provides Wi-Fi services in City parks in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Parks’ website provides a list of parks by borough and area(s) within the park with Wi-Fi hotspots along with its corresponding provider. According to Parks’ website, there are currently 113 parks with Wi-Fi hotspots provided by AT&T, Spectrum or Altice USA. These providers deliver Wi-Fi hotspots to 23 City parks in Queens, 28 in Brooklyn, 32 in Manhattan, 21 in the Bronx and 9 in Staten Island. Wireless internet access from these providers in City parks is available on a free or limited-free basis. AT&T provides free service to all users at all times via the Service Set Identifier (SSID) “attwifi”. Altice USA and Spectrum provide free and limited-free service via the SSID “GuestWiFi”. Altice USA provides free service at all times to its Optimum Online subscribers and Spectrum provides free service at all times to its broadband subscribers. Subscribers may sign in to the network using their subscription information. Altice USA and Spectrum also provide limited-free service to non-subscribers. Non-subscribers can either connect for three free 10-minute sessions every 30 days or purchase a $.99 per day pass.
Audit Findings
Auditors tested all 113 parks across the five boroughs with Wi-Fi hotspots provided by AT&T, Altice USA or Spectrum that were listed on Parks’ website. We found that overall, the Wi-Fi services provided by these providers generally operated as intended. The Wi-Fi network operated effectively in 95 out of 113 (84 percent) City parks. We were able to connect to the wireless network and browse various websites such as news, entertainment and social media. Furthermore, the networks allowed access to websites that allow users to stream music or videos such as Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Pandora and TuneIn.
However, we found that the Wi-Fi network did not operate effectively in 18 out of 113 (16 percent) City parks. Four of these parks were in Queens (Macdonald Park, Forest Park, Kissena Park and Astoria Park); five in Brooklyn (Hillside Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Carroll Park, Poseidon Playground and Dyker Beach Park); three in Manhattan (Chelsea Park, the High Line and Verdi Square); three in the Bronx (Fox Playground, Devoe Park and Pelham Bay Park) and three in Staten Island (Wolfe’s Pond Park, Greenbelt Native Plant Center and Ocean Breeze Park). (See Table I, which follows.)
Audit Recommendations
The audit recommended that AT&T, Altice USA and Spectrum periodically perform testing to ensure that their respective wireless networks are consistently operating effectively.
Agency Response
In its written response, Parks agreed with the report’s findings. Parks stated, “We are pleased with your finding that, overall, the Wi-Fi services generally operated as intended.” In response to our recommendation that the three Wi-Fi service providers periodically perform testing to ensure that their respective wireless networks are consistently operating effectively, Parks stated that it had spoken with DoITT and is “prepared to assist where possible in order to ensure that the wireless networks in our parks are operating as effectively as possible.”