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Which cable company is on your block?

99%of buildings have one cable company, set by City franchise

At almost every building in New York City, either Spectrum or Optimum claims service, and not both. Which one depends on a line the City drew, dashed on the map.

Skip to the map ↓

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The City drew the lines

A City franchise lets a company put wires on, over and under City streets. Federal law bars exclusive ones, yet the City's franchise map gives each area one cable company. Where a block has one cable company, it is the one that map names at 99.97% of buildings.

Some lines are decades old. In 1970 the City split Manhattan between two cable companies, and a notice the next year put the line at East 86th and West 79th Streets. Spectrum still holds a separate franchise for each side.

The line is the only place the two companies meet. About 1.1% of buildings sit on blocks both reach, shown in purple, and 82% of those are within 500 meters of the line.

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The second network fell short

In its 2008 citywide franchise, Verizon promised Fios to every household by 30 June 2014. A City audit in 2015 found Fios ran past 2.2 million of an estimated 3.3 million households. The City sued in 2017, and in a 2020 settlement Verizon agreed to reach 500,000 more households and every NYCHA building.

Today Verizon claims fiber at 87% of the city's buildings, but the gaps are not spread evenly. In northern Harlem, at least 74% of buildings have neither Verizon fiber nor Astound claimed.

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Expired, and up for renewal

Optimum's agreements for the Bronx and Brooklyn expired on 18 July 2020. At the end of 2024, Altice, Optimum's owner, told investors the franchise was still expired and that it was operating under temporary state authority.

A renewal is when the City can set new terms. Cities "often demand concessions or other commitments as a condition to renewal," Altice said in the same filing.