Empire City Subway

The company was formed in 1891 as part of a plan for common utility ducts to consolidate all utilities underground. Incompatibility among the utilities limited the range of utilities that could share their ducts, so the company now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon New York Telephone under a franchise from the city. In addition to Verizon, the company provides service to cable television and other telecommunications companies.

Empire City Subway makes its money by renting manhole space and conduits to New York City Office of Technology and Innovation telecommunications franchisees. Although wholly owned by Verizon, Verizon is their largest tenant in the Empire City Subway system.

They have construction crews on staff that perform excavation for conduit and points of entry (POEs) for their tenants and well as rodding and roping services so tenants may pull new cable through the ducts.

Tenants that choose to pull their own cables through the system are overseen by the Manhole Activity Program (MAP) Group. There is a fee charged per hour to the tenants for this service.