City to Announce Free Broadband for 5 NYC Housing Developments

New York City is poised to begin providing free Internet broadband access to more than 16,000 residents of its sprawling public housing system.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to make the announcement Thursday with federal Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. City officials told The Associated Press about the plan beforehand.

The city will spend $10 million to deliver the Internet to one development in the Bronx, two in Brooklyn and two in Queens.

City officials have said they want to change the perception that access to high-speed Internet is a luxury rather than a utility.

The city's public housing system has more than 400,000 residents, about the population of Miami.

Castro also plans to announce the federal government has struck a deal to provide wireless Internet devices to Bronx schoolchildren.