The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch. The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software.
Brad Hine:
Hello everyone in broadband land. This is another episode of The Broadband Bunch. I’m your host, Brad Hine, coming to you from Dallas, Texas, on-site here at Connect America, brought to you by Total Telecom. With me today I have Aaron Meyerson, who is director of Broadband for the city of Newark and specifically Invest Newark. Aaron, how’s it going?
Aaron Meyerson:
Wonderful. Thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here.
Brad Hine:
Awesome, awesome. We met remotely through a mutual contact in the industry and thought your story for the city of Newark was very compelling and wanted to make sure you got on here. Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you’re here at Connected America this week.
Aaron Meyerson:
Sure. So, in my role, I run all Broadband policies for the city of Newark. And what that means is several things. Newark is special. They have their own network. It’s called Newark Fiber. All of the city’s operations run on that network. So city hall, our police stations, fire stations, schools, all of this runs on the Newark Fiber network. What’s interesting though is that Newark Fiber uses several strands of our backbone fiber to connect the public sector and the private sector as well.
So, we have a number of commercial office buildings and residential units. We’re really trying to expand on that going forward. So I’m here today to try and learn a lot about how to better build an open-access network to meet the vendors and players in this field. And generally, to try and understand how to capitalize on the federal investment that’s coming down the pike. We’re trying to attract every dollar we can to Newark. That’s sort of why I’m here and some of the things that I’m looking to learn today.
Brad Hine:
Awesome, awesome. So tell us our listeners a little bit about how you got into this and maybe your timeline up to working for the City of Newark also.
Aaron Meyerson:
Sure, happy to. So I actually got my foray into the sort of broadband ecosystem back when I worked for the city of New York. This was when Mayor Michael Bloomberg was leading the city. One of his initiatives was trying to better understand and build a tech ecosystem in New York. And what he was seeing is that a lot of these tech companies were moving into the cool areas of the city into the Sohos and into the Brooklyns.
And those buildings were old. They had copper. They didn’t have the fiber connectivity to deliver the speeds necessary for these tech companies to grow. This was a decade and a half ago and one of the things he wanted to do was try and better understand and create transparency in the marketplace. So how could we help companies grow and make sure that they have the connectivity they need in those places?
So this spun up a number of different programs. One of them was about sort of rating buildings based on their internet connectivity. To sort of create transparency, similar to restaurant grades, this is a grade building when it comes to connectivity. One of the other projects we worked on was building Wi-Fi corridors in certain commercial corridors of the city to make them more appealing and have an amenity. This was back when public Wi-Fi was sort of a novelty.
So we’re trying to do a little bit more of that. And I was working with that team, the strategic planning team in the city of New York that I really sort of fell in love with this idea of it’s an infrastructure. It’s like a physical thing. But it really comes down to user experience. It really comes down to how people use it, being able to access Telehealth, being able to access social media, being able to access all of the things that you need to involve to engage with sort of the economy of today runs on this fiber.
And so policies and programs that help expand the physical infrastructure have an actual expansion of people’s quality of life and people’s access to education. So I was working through that. I actually then left working for the city of New York and went to the private sector. The firm that I talked about rating buildings is called WiredScore. And I actually went and left to help them expand. They were a New York City-focused company. My role was to help them expand nationally.
And so we rolled out WiredScore, which rates the broadband in buildings based on the internet connectivity to cities across the country. And my role there was to expand our operations and build government partnerships. Having worked on the public side, I saw the value in educating the public sector, educating elected officials, and educating administrators. They’re the ones that control policies and the infrastructure and access to that.
And so ensuring that they’re educated on the need for broadband planning, for infrastructure planning. This was just starting. This was about a decade ago. So WiredScore, as you may know, was very successful across the US. We actually brought it to the UK as well. So we’ve expanded into London and from there it has now gone global. WiredScore is now a global platform for rating internet connectivity in buildings. During the pandemic, locked back home again, I started looking for something new closer to home. So I jumped back into public service again. That’s sort of my passion.
And so I went to go work for the city of New York again this time at the Office of Technology and Innovation where I was the deputy chief technology officer for Broadband. So again, focused on citywide broadband policy, but for the city of New York. It’s the largest city in the country. So it was a very exciting role and really did everything from infrastructure planning to digital equity, advocacy work, and funding tablets in senior housing as well.
My family moved to New Jersey, so I left to find a new gig in New Jersey. I landed in the wonderful city of Newark, which is the largest city in the state of New Jersey. Invest Newark is this unique opportunity where we are running our own fiber network and really we have a mayor under Mayor Baraka. He was reelected with an 80% rate. So he sort of has this mandate from the population and one of his pillars was to bring high-speed, affordable broadband to every resident of Newark.
That’s where I am today, and what I’m focused on today. And when you look at Newark, it’s the largest city in the state of New Jersey, but it is also one of the most economically disadvantaged cities in the state of New Jersey. Just shy of the pandemic in 2020, 28% of residents did not have an in-home broadband connection.
Brad Hine:
Prior to?
Aaron Meyerson:
Prior to the pandemic. So nearly 30%, a third, 25% to a third of the population did not have access. 13% had only a cell phone connection. So if you can only afford one mode of connectivity, you’re going to have a cell phone because you can take it with you.
Brad Hine:
Now let me ask real quick, the reason is 28%, is because the infrastructure is not being robust and fully completed. Was it the economics of the folks living in the city combination?
Aaron Meyerson:
Yeah, I think it’s a combination. This is similar in a lot of cities. So in the city of New York when I was there, it was a similar percentage. It was in, I think, low twenties percent that did not have access to the internet. It has improved since the pandemic because the pandemic was so jarring that a lot of people went out of their way to get internet or to buy it. So it’s a number of things. It could be access to the infrastructure knowledge that it’s there. Who are the providers that are in my building or nearby? Then it gets to affordability, right? So can I afford the internet that might be available?
And again, if you can only afford one, you might just have a cell phone. So you’re not going to have that in-home connection. That’s really the thing that we’re grappling with. When we look at the map, everything’s very geographic. It’s not like it’s this 28% was evenly spread out, right? The pockets of the city-specific census tracks and neighborhoods that have lower adoption rates of the internet than others. And so that’s where we’re going to be focusing going forward is on those particular areas that are in high need of internet access.
Brad Hine:
So maps are absolutely essential to what you’re doing to see the broad 360-degree perspective of the city of Newark.
Aaron Meyerson:
Absolutely, and I think that, again, that sort of goes everywhere. If you have a limited pot of money to make an investment, you want to know exactly where you’re going to be putting that investment because again, it’s a physical infrastructure, so you want to make sure that money’s going as far as it can.
Brad Hine:
As you mentioned, it happens in every city. It’s great to hear that Newark’s doing this. They’ve identified those areas that they need to fortify with better broadband connectivity economically to help the city grow if people are able to work remotely and have jobs where they’re working remotely. If there’s ever a pandemic or an issue that would bar us from going to an office or even going to school now kids can go to school at home, and adults can go to school at home, continuing education. You mentioned retiree communities and senior citizens. So, the ultimate goal is just to get everybody connected and the city of Newark is absolutely committed to making sure that happens. So economic growth can start to spur again.
Aaron Meyerson:
That’s exactly right. And I think as we’ve seen. Everything revolves around access to the internet now. So just to engage in the innovation economy, you need access to telehealth, remote learning, all those things. You must have it. And so again, it’s a lot of education. Making sure people understand what’s available. So, what Newark’s going to be doing over the next coming weeks and months and years is a planned approach to encourage the adoption of the affordable connectivity program to get people signed up as an easy win, money in their pocket, lower that barrier to entry.
The next thing we’re doing is trying to increase the number of providers in the city by leveraging city real estate and our Newark Fiber network. How could we leverage the assets we already have, the real estate and the fiber to bring in more competition and to bring in more options for residents? We know that the middle mile and BEAD and these larger investments are going to take years to build out and for that money to flow. Right.
Brad Hine:
So, do you envision the city doing most of this work? Do you already have partners that will end up working for you through parts of the business? Maybe there’ll be several businesses eventually like you mentioned.
Aaron Meyerson:
Yeah, so I think, right now the city of Newark is not an internet provider. We own the infrastructure, but we work with private vendors and don’t really want to get in the business right now of servicing customers and invoicing and doing customer service and all of that work. We want to make sure that what we do is what cities are supposed to do, which is creating just like we manage the roads, managing the pipes and conduits and fiber that other vendors can use, that other cars can use. That’s what we’re there for. That’s what we want to focus our energy on. And we plan on working with private vendors to do construction and to do the service provisions as well.
Brad Hine:
So, you probably know all the players in terms of those vendors. But you’re here to have more conversations and just try to whittle that down and see who’s the best fit for you guys right now. So right now, with the challenges you have, what are your immediate next steps?
Aaron Meyerson:
So, I think right now as we’re planning for the middle mile and the bead funding, there’s a lot of planning that needs to go into that. So, finding the vendors that we’re going to work with to help us build our open access network, making sure that our technologies and the plans that we have will be future-proof so that we can do that in the future. And there are a lot of different technologies and players out there. So, we want to make sure we’re working with the right folks and doing our diligence.
Brad Hine:
And hopefully, as this all grows, as most business city economic plans are, more commercial business comes in for you guys working with more commercial partners, funneling more of those groups into the city of Newark. You mentioned 28% were connected before COVID. Do you have a perspective goal you’re looking at now in the next many years?
Aaron Meyerson:
Well, if you talk to the mayor, it’s a hundred percent.
Brad Hine:
I love it.
Aaron Meyerson:
We want to get every single resident connected to high-speed, affordable internet. So that’s the goal. And we were going to shoot for that goal. To your point, absolutely, the Newark Fiber network that we have today is used as a differentiator for Newark. And where it is in the buildings that it already is throughout Newark. Some office buildings and residential buildings tout it as a massive amenity to the businesses and residents of those buildings because it provides gigabit speeds at a below-market rate. And many of these speeds are 1 gig, 10 gigs.
These speeds are not all available everywhere. And so the fact that it’s available and affordable, that’s what we want to keep doing. That’s what we want to keep investing in. We want to double down on what the city has already done and already learned, but now attracting as much investment as we can to make sure that we can do it everywhere across Newark.
Brad Hine:
That’s fabulous. Well, I certainly wish you all the luck. We love to hear your story on the Broadband Bunch and would enjoy meeting with you again in the future to see how things are progressing in the city of Newark. Where do you see the city of Newark then? Obviously, we know a lot of this funding takes time. Where do you see yourselves three to five years from now?
Aaron Meyerson:
So in three to five years, I think we’ll have seen hopefully full deployment of the middle mile and bead funds, and the city of Newark would have an operational open access network where we have multiple providers running on it. Our city real estate is being leveraged, whether that be rooftops of schools and libraries and things like that for the provision. But I think what’s most important is that the residents and businesses of Newark have the connectivity they need. That’s what we want to see in three to five years is that everyone’s connected and everyone’s able to engage in the innovation economy. And do the learning and working and schooling and telehealth that they need and what’s going to be a daily part of their lives is able to happen seamlessly.
Brad Hine:
That’s great. Well, it’s fabulous having you here today. I appreciate you coming in and speaking to the Broadband Bunch. Is there anything you’d like to impart to our audience before we wrap up today here?
Aaron Meyerson:
No, I think we covered it, but really appreciate the time. I thank you so much for rooting for everybody in this goal. We’re all here to make sure that the rising tide lifts all ships. We want to make sure that this money connects those under-connected. I think that’s the goal of everyone here today. I appreciate the opportunity for us to share a little bit about the Newark story.
Brad Hine:
Absolutely. Well please stay in touch with the Broadband Bunch. We’ll see how you guys are doing in the years to come, and I know we’ll talk again. Thanks so much. Have a great conference.
Aaron Meyerson:
Thank you so much.
