Miami’s newest broadband destination
We go on site with The Underline. Here’s what we’re digging into at Opportunity Miami.
This is the March 22, 2022 edition of the Opportunity Miami newsletter, which we send every Tuesday. Click here to subscribe to get our weekly updates in your inbox.
Nearly seven years ago, on a fall day in New York City, 193 countries of the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. They created 17 broad goals, with 169 targets, addressing areas critical to our economic future.
But arguably, if we had to pick one goal to focus on, it would be universal access to high-speed internet. It’s a point that Softbank’s Shu Nyatta made in a Tweet last year.
In Miami, access to fast, reliable, affordable internet is a challenge. Only 77 percent of households in Miami-Dade County are connected, as we discussed earlier this year. And Miami is hardly alone — many U.S. cities have struggled, prompting efforts like New York City’s internet master plan.
Thanks to the federal Infrastructure Bill, which includes the biggest-ever investment in broadband connectivity by Congress, we have the opportunity to make internet access in Miami-area homes as ubiquitous as running water or electricity. Indeed, former FCC chief of staff Blair Levin said on an Opportunity Miami podcast he thinks it can be achieved in the next five years.
Amid efforts to increase broadband access in every home, it’s also important to expand connectivity in every part of our daily lives. It’s with that in mind that a key effort to expand broadband access is underway on a ten mile strip of land meandering from the Miami River in Miami’s urban core to suburban Dadeland Mall: The Underline.
Conceived and led by Miami civic entrepreneur Meg Daly, The Underline is an effort to transform underutilized land beneath and alongside the Metrorail into a 120-acre linear urban park and trail.
And most important for our purposes here: it aims to provide uninterrupted continuous free public wifi throughout its 10-mile span.
“Public wifi at the intersection of public spaces is really an important thing,” said Breanna Faye, Chief Technology of The Underline. “There’s still a huge barrier to entry when it comes to internet connectivity and I think a lot of people don’t realize that.”
Faye is featured today in our first On Site, a new piece of original content we’re starting that provides short videos with people talking about ways they’re working to solve issues pivotal to Miami’s economic future, and the places where they’re doing it.
Phase one of The Underline opened to the public last year in Brickell. Construction of phase two is underway, with completion planned for 2023. Ultimately, the entire 10-mile expanse is to be finished by 2026.
Landscape architects James Corner Field Operations — whose previous work includes New York City’s The Highline — designed the linear park’s master plan.
What distinguishes The Underline’s effort to deliver free public wifi is not just the size of its footprint — 120 acres — but the variety of places it runs through along its 10 miles.
“There’s tons of neighborhoods from West Grove, Shenandoah, Coral Gables that are all in between that are all benefiting and will benefit once The Underline is completed and all public wifi is installed,” Faye said.
There are 250,000 people living within a half mile of The Underline. Highlighting the potential impact, roughly thirty percent of the households make less than $35,000 a year, she added.
The public wifi network, which is being provided by Hotwire Communications, received a big boost last week when Knight Foundation announced an $800,000 grant for The Underline’s technology initiatives. The investment is to serve as a four-to-one match, securing an additional $3.2 million in federal, state and local dollars.
As we think about Miami’s economic future, ensuring fast, reliable affordable wifi for all is vital. Due to the federal funding now available, we have a generational opportunity to make high-speed internet in homes as common as electricity and running water. But the work doesn’t end there, which is why The Underline’s ambitious effort to bring wifi access to public spaces at scale is so important.
As always, we want to hear from you. We’re four months into building Opportunity Miami (for background on the initiative, go here) and we continue to experiment and try new things. On Site is our latest effort and will sit alongside our Q&A series, podcast, daily content on our social channels, and weekly newsletter. We’ll be adding more as we go.
Matt Haggman
Opportunity Miami
@matthaggman
