NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Sen. Chuck Schumer said he’s troubled by a recent report that found internet speeds in New York City metro are often much slower than advertised.
Some 4.3 million people in the five boroughs and 436,000 people on Long Island don’t have internet speeds of at least 25 megabits per second, according to a report by Microsoft.
The FCC says that the percentage of people who don’t get broadband speed around the city is less than 1 percent.
But the recent Microsoft report came back with much higher numbers: as high as 61 percent in the Bronx and 55 percent in Brooklyn.
“While we live in an era of faster and faster, the reality of internet speed across New York is that it may move more like molasses than lightning,” Schumer reportedly said.
Schumer wants the FCC to do its own investigation into internet speeds throughout the New York metro. Companies currently report their own speeds to the agency.
If the speeds aren’t up to the standards the FCC has promoted, Schumer wants to force internet providers to upgrade.
Here are the number of people without access to high speed internet, according to Microsoft:
Bronx61% or 894,000Brooklyn55% or 1,500,000Manhattan36% or 592,000 peopleQueens48% or 1,100,000 peopleStaten Island50% or 242,000 peopleNassau County9% or 125,000 peopleSuffolk County20% or 311,000 people