Lack of Data Makes Evaluating NY Affordability Law Difficult: Benton
The act went into effect a year ago, but participation rates are unclear.
WASHINGTON, April 2, 2026 – New York’s Affordable Broadband Act took effect in January 2025. A year later, it’s difficult for researchers to say whether the law is getting more low-income households online or keeping them connected.
That’s because many ISP compliance reports keep subscriber counts and other information confidential, according to Caroline Stratton, research director for the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. Benton submitted a public records request for the redacted data, but in total was only able to obtain the information for nine of the 16 participating companies.
“The situation places advocates in a frustrating position, as they cannot and will not know where outreach and enrollment assistance are most needed or would have the greatest impact on low-income New Yorkers,” Stratton wrote in a Wednesday report. “States pursuing similar policies also cannot draw any evidence-based conclusions about the relative merits of mandating that ISPs provide affordable broadband plans.”
The law requires 200 megabit per second (Mbps) download plans be capped at $20 per month for low-income households, or $15 for slower speeds.
Benton wasn’t able to get ABA subscriber counts from some of the largest ISPs in New York: Verizon, Charter, Optimum (formerly Altice USA), or T-Mobile.
With data from ISPs with fewer subscribers, the group was able to verify there are 1,253 ABA plan subscribers in the state. But Stratton wrote that there are likely about 1.2 million eligible households based on SNAP recipients in New York – participating in SNAP is one way of being eligible for an ABA plan.
The incomplete data made it impossible to judge whether state-funded outreach programs were improving take rates, Stratton wrote. She wrote that most ISPs reported simply putting ABA plan information on their website, with major cable companies Comcast and Optimum running ads to publicize the plans.
At least one broadband provider told the New York Public Service Commission that revealing subscriber counts and details about non-payment rates would put the company at a competitive disadvantage, as another ISP could use the information to target ABA-eligible households in the company’s footprint. The PSC agreed.
Affordability laws and BEAD
The Commerce Department has told states that they can’t enforce laws regulating broadband rates on participants in the $42.45 Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.
That’s successfully prevented at least one state from passing a law similar to New York’s.
After hearing from Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration that participants in the program would have to be exempted to avoid jeopardizing California’s $1.8 billion slice of funding, legislators halted work on a broadband affordability bill.
Prior to the law going into effect, the PSC had said Charter and Optimum already offered compliant plans because of merger agreements, and Verizon’s low-income plan was nearly compliant but would have to be made available to more people. Those ISPs cover about 95 percent of the state’s homes and businesses.
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