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Mayor’s Office of the CTO and Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Announce Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Chal­lenge Finalists

Jan 31, 2018 3:01 pm

Mayor’s Office of the CTO and Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Announce Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Chal­lenge Finalists

Three final­ists select­ed for ​‘Moon­shot’ tech chal­lenge will now test pro­pos­als for high-speed Wi-Fi and next gen­er­a­tion ​“5G” cel­lu­lar con­nec­tiv­i­ty on Gov­er­nors Island.

Jan­u­ary 31, 2018. New York, NY. – Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer Miguel Gamiño, Jr. and Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Pres­i­dent Michael Samuelian announced today the final­ists of the NYCx Gov­er­nors Island Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Chal­lenge, the first city­wide ​‘Moon­shot Chal­lenge’ through the NYCx pro­gram that will bring high-speed, low-cost wire­less ser­vice to Gov­er­nors Island in 2018.

The three final­ists rep­re­sent a broad range of start-up com­pa­nies and entre­pre­neurs aim­ing to bring inter­net con­nec­tiv­i­ty to the Island, while inform­ing how to deliv­er next gen­er­a­tion net­work infra­struc­ture for ​“5G” cel­lu­lar con­nec­tiv­i­ty across New York City’s parks and neighborhoods.

The Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Chal­lenge Final­ists:

1. Neu­tral Con­nect Net­works LLC, based in West Palm Beach, FL, owns and oper­ates wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tions infra­struc­ture in New York City and oth­er U.S. cities.

2. Fiber­less Net­works™, based in Quin­cy, MA offers wire­less tech­nol­o­gy with speeds of 1 Gbps and greater. Fiber­less Net­works will part­ner with Green Zebra and Cis­co Mer­a­ki to test and build their solu­tion on Gov­er­nors Island.

3. Edge Fiber­net, based in NYC, pro­vides inter­net and phone con­nec­tiv­i­ty to low-income com­mu­ni­ties in Times Square, Brook­lyn and Manhattan’s low­er east side.

Over the next few months, final­ists will work with the Trust and the Mayor’s Office of the Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer to test and build solu­tions on Gov­er­nors Island. A final win­ner will be cho­sen for the Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Chal­lenge to deploy their tech­nolo­gies on Gov­er­nors Island dur­ing open­ing season.

“I’m excit­ed to see new tools and tech­nolo­gies break­ing ground in New York and help­ing us move a step clos­er to achiev­ing the Mayor’s goal of afford­able, high-qual­i­ty, high-speed inter­net for all New York­ers,” said Miguel Gamiño, Jr., New York City Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer. ​“This Moon­shot Chal­lenge is help­ing us engage the right experts to accel­er­ate con­nec­tiv­i­ty, estab­lish fair oppor­tu­ni­ty for every­one to par­tic­i­pate in today’s world, and make tech work for people.”

“Con­grat­u­la­tions to all the final­ists for putting for­ward inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to the ​“Moon­shot Chal­lenge” of cre­at­ing more oppor­tu­ni­ty for high-speed, low-cost wire­less ser­vice on Gov­er­nors Island,” said Coun­cil Mem­ber Peter Koo, Chair of the Com­mit­tee on Tech­nol­o­gy. ​“We look for­ward to mak­ing sure Gov­er­nors Island lives up to its poten­tial as a world class loca­tion that con­nects the five bor­oughs in more ways than one.”

The Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Chal­lenge, announced in Octo­ber, 2017 looks to encour­age glob­al entre­pre­neurs to pro­pose and deliv­er bold solu­tions to the City’s most press­ing chal­lenges and fur­ther May­or Bill de Blasio’s goal to ensure every New York City res­i­dent and busi­ness will have access to afford­able, reli­able, high-speed broad­band ser­vice by 2025. Through solu­tions pro­posed by the final­ists announced today, the City expects to acquire new insights to advance broad­band, Wi-Fi and 5G cel­lu­lar service.

“In order to bring inter­net equi­ty and access to all cor­ners of New York City, we need inno­v­a­tive tech tal­ent to come up with smart, effec­tive solu­tions,” said Coun­cil Mem­ber Mar­garet S. Chin. ​“The ​‘Moon­shot chal­lenge’ encour­ages groups to think out­side the box to bring fast and afford­able con­nec­tiv­i­ty to Gov­er­nor’s Island. Con­grat­u­la­tions to all three final­ists for all your hard work thus far, and thank you to May­or De Bla­sio, Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer Miguel Gamiño and Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Pres­i­dent Michael Samuelian for your efforts to bring excit­ing, trans­for­ma­tive new pro­grams like NYCx to Gov­er­nor’s Island.”

“Inter­net access is now a crit­i­cal link to eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty,” said James Patch­ett, NYCEDC Pres­i­dent and CEO. ​“This chal­lenge will pro­pel new con­nec­tiv­i­ty solu­tions into New York City’s ecosys­tem, both improv­ing the expe­ri­ence at Gov­er­nors Island and mov­ing the nee­dle on equi­table high speed Inter­net access for all New Yorkers.”

“We need real solu­tions for real peo­ple if New York City is to be the inclu­sive and pros­per­ous city we all can sur­vive and thrive in,” said Maya Wiley, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent for Social Jus­tice & Hen­ry Cohen Pro­fes­sor of Pub­lic and Urban Pol­i­cy at The New School and NYCx Tech­nol­o­gy Lead­er­ship Advi­so­ry Coun­cil Mem­ber. ​“And ​‘moon­shots’ will mat­ter as inno­va­tion exper­i­ments like these help us build a 21^st cen­tu­ry bridge over divides we can no longer tolerate.”

“I am excit­ed about sup­port­ing the inno­v­a­tive ways that the City of New York and the NYCx pro­gram­ming are encour­ag­ing entre­pre­neurs to work with New York to make the City a bet­ter place for all,” said Kevin Ryan, Chair­man and CEO of All­ey­Corp and NYCx Tech­nol­o­gy Lead­er­ship Advi­so­ry Coun­cil Mem­ber.

Gov­er­nors Island, a pop­u­lar sea­son­al des­ti­na­tion for recre­ation, arts and cul­ture with acres of park space beloved by New York­ers, is under­go­ing a trans­for­ma­tion into a com­mu­ni­ty with year-round com­mer­cial, cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ty. The Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Chal­lenge win­ning solu­tion will bring much need­ed ser­vice to the Islands hun­dreds of thou­sands of sea­son­al vis­i­tors, dozens of art and cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions pro­duc­ing pub­lic pro­gram­ming and future year-round tenants.

“As the trans­for­ma­tion of Gov­er­nors Island con­tin­ues with more and more New York­ers delight­ing in all it has to offer, we have a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to bring cre­ative and inno­v­a­tive ameni­ties to our vis­i­tors and com­mu­ni­ty,” said Michael Samuelian, Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Pres­i­dent. ​“We are thrilled to part­ner with these entre­pre­neurs in unlock­ing the poten­tial of next gen­er­a­tion con­nec­tiv­i­ty tech­nolo­gies through­out New York City’s pub­lic spaces.”

Final­ists will receive up to $25,000 to show­case their solu­tions on Gov­er­nors Island, a micro­cosm for larg­er islands glob­al­ly like Man­hat­tan, Hong Kong and Sin­ga­pore. The win­ner will address the needs of the vis­i­tors of today and the mul­ti-use ten­ants of tomor­row, while demon­strat­ing their abil­i­ty to mit­i­gate risks asso­ci­at­ed with cli­mate change, such as high winds, poten­tial flood­ing, and storm surges.

“We’re hon­ored by this oppor­tu­ni­ty,” said Ted Flomen­haft, CEO of Edge Fiber­net. ​“Our net­work will deliv­er com­plete cov­er­age and sup­port for ameni­ty and secu­ri­ty ser­vices need­ed now and in the future to enhance man­age­ment, guest and ten­ant expe­ri­ences and objec­tives. EDGE’s pow­er­ful redun­dant Net­work Core per­mits us to deliv­er afford­able Giga­bit+ Inter­net ser­vices wher­ev­er we extend our Net­work Edge. We serve three imme­di­ate­ly adja­cent Gov­er­nors Island com­mu­ni­ties, DUM­BO and Sun­set Park in Brook­lyn and the Low­er East side, which makes Gov­er­nors Island a log­i­cal exten­sion of our net­work and estab­lished tech­ni­cal sup­port resources.”

“We are excit­ed to be includ­ed in the final round of the bid by the Gov­er­nors Island Trust,” said Louis Slaugh­ter, CEO of Fiber­less Net­works, Inc. ​“We are pleased to show­case our solu­tion which we believe will be the mod­el for future Smart Cities as it will inte­grate the effec­tive deliv­ery of wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tions and at the same time enable the effi­cient deliv­ery of media pro­vid­ing action­able feed­back for spon­sors to gen­er­ate and grow revenue.”

“Mak­ing it to the final round of the Chal­lenge allows NCN to dis­play a cut­ting edge, self-con­tained net­work on Gov­er­nors Island that will be a show­case of what a world class, green­field, wire­less build can be in 2018,” said Paul McGinn, CEO of Neu­tral Con­nect Net­works.

About NYCX

Launched in Octo­ber 2017, NYCx is the world’s first munic­i­pal pro­gram to trans­form urban spaces into hubs for tech col­lab­o­ra­tion, research, test­ing and devel­op­ment. New York City’s diverse pop­u­la­tion, econ­o­my and land­scape offer a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty for tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies to devel­op tools that improve the world. NYCx is a pro­gram in the Mayor’s Office of the Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Officer.

About the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is the non­prof­it cor­po­ra­tion cre­at­ed by the City of New York that is respon­si­ble for the rede­vel­op­ment and oper­a­tion of 150 acres of Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust’s mis­sion is to trans­form Gov­er­nors Island into a vibrant resource for New York City, mak­ing this island at the cen­ter of New York Har­bor a des­ti­na­tion with extra­or­di­nary pub­lic open space, as well as edu­ca­tion­al, not-for-prof­it and com­mer­cial facilities.

CON­TACT: Kath­leen Clark, Mayor’s Office of the CTO; E: kaclark@​cto.​nyc.​gov, P: 646−927−9592