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Cumulative number of LinkNYC subscribers
Regulate provisioning of public telecommunications services on City streets. — Maximize usefulness, operability and cleanliness of public telecommunications services on City streets.
LinkNYC subscriber counts have climbed steadily rather than swinging up and down. OTI's own reporting attributes the growth to continued investment in and expansion of the free public Wi-Fi kiosk network across the five boroughs, with subscribership up 16 percent in just the first few months of Fiscal 2026 alone.
Researched July 16, 2026 — OTI, Preliminary Fiscal 2026 Mayor's Management Report
* Year to date — this fiscal year isn't complete, so it's not compared against prior years in the target/trend status above.
View as table
| Fiscal year | Actual |
|---|---|
| FY22 | 11,321,069 subscribers |
| FY23 | 13,597,643 subscribers |
| FY24 | 16,069,742 subscribers |
| FY25 | 18,713,093 subscribers |
| FY26 (YTD) | 20,728,124 subscribers |
Why this is tracked
OTI oversees the franchise agreements that let companies install telecommunications infrastructure, like kiosks, cables, and antennas, in the public right-of-way along City streets. The best-known example is LinkNYC, launched after a 2014 competitive bid replaced the City's roughly 9,000 to 13,000 public payphones with free Wi-Fi kiosks; the winning CityBridge consortium builds and owns the infrastructure under a 12-year franchise rather than the City paying for it directly, funding the network in part through advertising.
Wikipedia - LinkNYC, NYC DoITT - LinkNYC Public Communications Structure Franchise Agreement
Source: Telecommunications Planning — via NYC Open Data: Mayor's Management Report, Agency Performance Indicators
Coverage shown: FY22–FY26, reported monthly.
Definition: Cumulative number of LinkNYC subscribers.