Flume, a New York City-based fiber provider, has made great strides in the past few years to provide gigabit service to low-income households. But co-founders Brandon Gibson and Prashanth Vijay say there are still barriers to broadband access.
The FCC last week unveiled the first draft of its broadband map, which provides U.S. residents with insight into national coverage. In an interview, Gibson and Vijay acknowledged that the map is not only a step in the right direction toward closing the digital divide, but also helps address broadband accessibility issues.
"Just because it's available doesn't mean it's accessible," Gibson said, noting that while big cities like New York have plenty of Internet options, "a lot of New Yorkers don't have access."
Infrastructure is a key reason for the inaccessibility, added Vijay, who started out as an engineer for Verizon Fios. "In the U.S., each ISP has its own infrastructure, and I live in Brooklyn, where there are probably seven or eight provider cables in front of each building, but only one is willing to be built in your building." That, in turn, creates a "double problem" in which the city has too many poles and pipes while residents don't get the broadband they need. Vijay hopes that the new FCC map will identify these differences, rather than just provide a broad overview of what ISPs are serving in a particular area. "You can provide one service across the street or in the building next door, but not in the building across the street," he explained. "So the granularity down to each address and the speed of each address, I think that's what we're really interested in."
The additional data will also help Flume decide where to expand its coverage or whether it makes sense to partner with other providers based on market conditions.
"We're not going to build a place that has a really good selection of cheap fiber," Vijay said. "It's a good way to share our available locations, which could be a good secondary impact to the map if others want to look at it and work with us."
Flume first offers service in New York City in 2020, using the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) as a key partner to provide high-speed Internet to approximately 600,000 low-income residents. Gibson noted that Flume facilitates deployment by leveraging the city's unused fiber, which has been laid on the ground for commercial and cell towers.
"We realize that about 8 percent of the country already has fiber for homes, so most of the country is underserved by fiber," he said. "But the demand for fiber is only going to increase due to the increase in equipment and the need for greater bandwidth."
Flume serves New York City's Manhattan, Bronx and Brooklyn boroughs, and the company is looking to expand into parts of Queens. Earlier this year, Flume launched in Los Angeles and East Hartford, Connecticut. In Connecticut, Flume is using the open access fiber network to stand out as an ISP challenger in that market, Gibson said.
Flume's goal is to be in three additional markets by the end of 2023. Gibson did not give details on specific cities, but noted that the company is targeting metro areas of "similar size" to its current markets.
As Flume continues to grow, it is looking to add complementary services to its Internet package.
While Flume is a venture-backed private company, it is also focusing on a number of federal broadband grants. Vijay noted that Flume applied for the $1 billion Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure program, for which NTIA will make awards beginning in early 2023.
