Huge 5G Poles May Come To 18 Upper East Side Blocks, City Says

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — More than a dozen blocks around the Upper East Side may soon be outfitted with enormous 5G transmission poles as part of a city plan to expand internet access — alarming at least one local leader who says the poles will overwhelm their low-rise neighborhood.

The 18 potential sites for LinkNYC kiosks will be presented Wednesday to a Community Board 8 committee by the Office of Technology and Innovation, which since 2015 has been replacing the city's old payphones with hundreds of 9-foot-tall "links," emitting free Wi-Fi and bearing advertising on both sides.

Those efforts escalated starting this year, as LinkNYC began installing 32-foot-tall 5G towers atop the kiosks, using the extra-fast cellular technology to power their Wi-Fi, USB chargers, nationwide calling, and access to 911 and 311.

Now, the city and its partner in the venture, the private company CityBridge, are "restarting the deployment of LinkNYC kiosks" throughout the city, according to a Nov. 18 letter sent to Upper East Side officials.

The Upper East Side sites are clustered in three areas: Carnegie Hill, the lower sixties near Madison Avenue, and the far east side near Weill Cornell Medical Center. Another would apparently be placed in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The poles will be installed "within a short timeframe," and work could begin by mid-January depending on the board's feedback, according to the letter. While all of the 18 sites have met the city's criteria, some may not be built even if they are approved, "due to technical factors," the letter says.

Matthew Bauer, president of the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District, told Patch that his group will oppose the three new 5G towers slated to go up in his district. The 32-foot poles will eclipse some of the avenue's shorter commercial buildings, while any advertising on them could outshine adjacent shops, he fears.

"If it has advertising screens on it, they’ll be right in front of existing storefronts," Bauer said.

Unlike the first round of LinkNYC kiosks, some of the locations being eyed for the 5G poles were never home to payphones, Bauer said.

Ray Legendre, a spokesperson for the Office of Technology and Innovation, said in a statement that the 5G towers would help "bridge the digital divide" across the city. The city plans to deploy 2,000 of the kiosks, with a focus on the outer boroughs and Manhattan north of 96th Street, where a lack of access to home and mobile broadband is more common.

"We believe that digital connectivity is a human right, necessary to fully participate and access opportunities in modern society," Legendre said.

Still, the LinkNYC program has been beset by problems since its inception. CityBridge fell into debt and fell behind on its timeline for installing the kiosks, causing the city to consider dropping the private firm.

Telecom companies may pay CityBridge to put their equipment inside the poles, while everyday New Yorkers will need to already be paying for a mobile plan that includes 5G in order to connect to one, according to THE CITY.

Despite the technological benefit, some New Yorkers have lambasted the size and bulky design of the new towers in places where they have already been installed. In Brooklyn, residents called the poles "monstrosities" that stick out "like a sore thumb," Brownstoner reported.

In October, a 5G pole not related to LinkNYC was installed abruptly in front of a Yorkville apartment building in October, to the consternation of residents and some elected officials who claimed that neighbors had not been properly notified, as Upper East Site reported.

Wednesday's CB8 transportation committee meeting discussing the poles will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom.

This article has been updated to clarify that the Yorkville 5G pole installed in October is not part of the LinkNYC program.