Starry Plans Expansion to Detroit with Microsoft

Last year, we teamed up with Microsoft, through their Airband Initiative, to expand our ultra-low-cost Starry Connect program to under-connected communities in Los Angeles. This summer, we’ll launch our pilot in New York City. But we’re not stopping there.

We are adding a new city to our list: Detroit.

Recent data shows that nearly 40% of Detroit residents, including nearly 70% of all Detroit public school students, do not have a broadband connection at home with cost being a significant barrier to adoption.

We designed the Starry Connect to focus primarily on bringing high-quality, affordable broadband service to public and affordable housing communities. When this partnership launches in Detroit, it will expand  the program to households in zip codes identified as having low levels of broadband adoption among Black and African American residents.

“Home broadband access is essential to daily life. And yet, millions of Americans continue to go without it due to high costs. We think that’s unacceptable,” said Virginia Lam Abrams, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs & Strategic Advancement for Starry. “We created Starry Connect to get broadband access to families who have been written off or left behind by traditional incumbent providers. By working with Microsoft, we can super-charge our impact in cities like Detroit, by being laser-focused on neighborhoods that are underserved by incumbents and as a result are grossly under-connected to the digital tools they need to thrive.”  

“Too many Detroiters, particularly ethnic and racial minorities, lack access to an affordable, high speed internet connection, leaving them cut off from participating in today’s digital economy,” said Vickie Robinson, General Manager, Microsoft Airband Initiative. “Our work with Starry will help bring under-connected communities across Detroit affordable access to the necessities and opportunities of the digital world.”

We will begin planning our network deployment for Detroit in 2022.

Motor City, we can’t wait to meet you!

Read the full press release for more details.