Owners & managers · 4–40 units
The small-building owner’s guide to internet options.
Your tenants want better internet, and every option you call seems built for a building ten times your size. This guide walks through the choices a small-building owner actually has — waiting on a carrier, signing a bulk deal, or licensing the roof — and what each one costs the building. Plain terms — and where we fit comes last.
Live today — W 57th–110th St, Central Park West to the Hudson. See the coverage map.
The economics, honestly
Why small buildings hear no so often.
You own or manage a building somewhere between four and forty units. The tenants want better internet — some have told you so more than once — and when you call the providers they already called, you get the same answers they got. It is tempting to take that personally. Don’t.
In large network builds, carriers weigh the apartments behind a front door against the cost of reaching them. That is industry economics, not proof of what happened at your address. Why any particular carrier passed on your particular building is that carrier’s to explain — and we won’t pretend to know one.
What matters on your side of the desk is the practical half: one company’s no does not make your building impossible to serve. Small buildings did not fit the incumbent rollout model — a build-plan outcome, not a defect in the buildings. ConnectNYC was built around exactly this category, and if a tenant has already sent you our name, this page is probably why. But this guide is about your options — all of them — so let’s take them in order.
Your actual choices
Three ways to get tenants better internet.
When tenants push, an owner has three real moves. Each one is legitimate. They just trade off differently.
Option one: wait for a carrier build. Costs nothing and sometimes works. Carrier maps change over time, and a carrier wiring your building at its own expense is a good outcome — if Verizon, Spectrum, Optimum, or Astound offers to build to your address on terms your counsel likes, take that meeting. We mean it: more working options in the building is the goal, and ours doesn’t have to be one of them. The honest catch is that you can’t schedule it. Availability varies by building — check your address with each provider, ask each one directly about plans and timelines, and treat silence as your answer until it changes.
Option two: a bulk or exclusive-style agreement. In a bulk arrangement the building buys service for every unit and folds it into rent or common charges, usually at a per-door rate. For some buildings — larger ones especially, or ones marketing internet-included apartments — that genuinely pencils. The tradeoffs deserve equal billing: the building becomes the customer, tenants lose provider choice, and the term you sign can outlast the management company that signed it. Read the renewal and marketing clauses twice. Know also that federal rules limit how exclusive a provider’s access or wiring arrangement can be in a multi-tenant building, and New York adds tenant-access rules of its own; the specifics shift, so have counsel confirm the current state before signing anything long.
Option three: a non-exclusive rooftop license with a neighborhood operator. The building grants roof space and a cable path under written terms; the operator pays for the survey and the installation; tenants who want the service order it individually, and everyone who prefers the incumbent keeps it. Nothing exclusive, nothing bulk-billed, no fee in either direction. That is the model ConnectNYC brings to buildings, and the rest of this guide walks through what it involves — because the details are where owners rightly get careful.
Management does not become the customer help desk.ConnectNYC
The paperwork
What a rooftop license involves.
Start by reading the actual document. ConnectNYC publishes its sample rooftop license in full, before any pitch — your counsel can read it tonight. The shape of it:
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Non-exclusive, five-year termExisting providers stay, and residents keep their choice. The term is five years, in writing.
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No cost to the buildingThe survey and installation are at ConnectNYC’s expense, and no license fee flows either way. The agreement includes one connection for building or management use at no charge, plus common-area Wi-Fi where an interior common area exists.
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House power, access, and insurance, in writingThe equipment draws modest house power; roof access is scheduled with management; insurance terms are stated in the license, with documentation supplied on request.
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Restoration and removal, in writingAny roof penetration and its restoration method are proposed and approved before that work happens, and end-of-agreement removal and restoration are written terms — not a conversation you have later with whoever picks up the phone.
The survey that precedes all of this costs the building nothing and commits it to nothing. It is a site visit that produces a written, site-specific proposal; the license is what you sign only if the proposal holds up.
Inside the building
What installation looks like below the roof.
The roof is the headline, but the question owners actually ask is what happens under it. The install is deliberately boring: a compact node on the roof, then a weatherproof cable path down the building’s usable route — a riser or another agreed path, identified at the survey and written into the proposal. No street trench, no waiting on a street build. Some five- or six-story walk-ups offer both paths — bulkhead roof access and a usable riser; the survey tells us what your building offers.
Inside the apartments, the method depends on the building. Units in larger buildings usually self-install over existing coax, which means no new wiring inside the apartment and no technician in the hallway. Smaller buildings get a professional dedicated line from the roof, run cleanly along the route agreed in the proposal. Which method applies is confirmed during the building check, before anyone schedules anything — and each apartment’s install happens only when that household orders.
After the install
What management signs up for. And what it doesn’t.
Here is the clause that matters most to whoever runs the building day to day: management does not become the customer help desk. Residents order directly from ConnectNYC, are billed directly, and contact ConnectNYC directly for support — the residential inbox is open 24/7 and replies are handled by people. Your super coordinates agreed roof access when maintenance needs it. That is the entire ongoing job.
Each household chooses its own plan — $89, $119, or $149 a month, taxes included, no contract, apartment installation $150 once — or chooses nothing at all and stays with the provider it has. A storefront downstairs uses dedicated business service under its own terms, and a mixed-use building gets one evaluation covering both. The building keeps its management-use connection per the license terms either way.
Getting started
How an evaluation starts.
One address is enough. Send it through the owner page — or paste a whole portfolio list, and we review feasibility building by building. A person replies by email; if a survey makes sense, we can offer one as soon as the next day, and it costs the building nothing. Service is live today from W 57th to 110th Street, Central Park West to the Hudson, and every building is confirmed individually after the request — being inside the zone starts the conversation rather than ending it.
One more thing worth knowing: you may not be the one who starts this. One household is enough to trigger a building check, and when a resident does, ConnectNYC contacts ownership or management as ConnectNYC, about the building — we don’t use the resident’s name in that conversation unless they opt in. If a letter or an email from us is how you found this page, the process from here is the same either way: survey first, written proposal second, nothing signed or installed until you have read the terms. Questions in the meantime go to the FAQ or info@connectnyc.com.
Owner questions
What owners ask before saying yes.
Can an apartment building have more than one internet provider?
Yes. The ConnectNYC license is non-exclusive by design — existing providers stay, and residents decide individually which service to use. A building having one provider today is a business outcome, not a rule.
What does a rooftop internet installation cost the building?
Nothing. The survey and installation are at ConnectNYC’s expense, and no license fee flows in either direction. The agreement includes one connection for building or management use at no charge, plus common-area Wi-Fi where an interior common area exists.
Will building staff have to handle tenants’ internet problems?
No. Residents contact ConnectNYC directly — support is by email, the inbox is open 24/7, and replies are handled by people. Building staff coordinate agreed roof access when maintenance needs it, and that is the extent of the ongoing job.
Are exclusive internet agreements for apartment buildings allowed in NYC?
Exclusivity is limited. Federal rules restrict how exclusive a provider’s access or wiring arrangement can be in multi-tenant buildings, and New York has tenant-access rules of its own; bulk-billing is a separate structure with its own tradeoffs. The rules shift, so have counsel confirm the current state before signing anything long.
What happens to the rooftop equipment if the agreement ends?
Removal and restoration are written terms in the published sample license: ConnectNYC removes its equipment and restores the affected areas to substantially their prior condition, ordinary wear and tear excepted, with any approved roof penetration restored per the approved method. You can read those terms before anything is signed.
More questions? The full FAQ answers what New Yorkers actually ask.
A survey first. A proposal second.
The survey costs the building nothing, the license is non-exclusive and published for your counsel to read, and management gets one building-use connection per its terms.