Comcast is increase the speed of its Internet Essentials package from 25/3 Mbps to 50/5 Mbps starting March 1, 2020 at no additional cost. The change is part of what the ISP says is a long-term commitment to digital equity and that providing low-income households with speeds above the FCC minimum will help “accelerate” these plans throughout 2021.
On the one hand, it seems to be an extension of good faith in the end to bring decent households and low-income communities. But on the other hand, it highlights how Internet service providers like Comcast have always had the ability to do this.
“Today’s announcement shows that Comcast can improve its services at any time for families and community members in need,” said Devren Washington, Senior Policy Organizer of the Movement Alliance Project. in a statement. “25 Mbps is not enough when children, carers and communities rely on a single internet connection.”
Comcast previously increased the speed of Internet Essentials from 15/2 Mbps to 25/3 Mbps in March 2020 in response to the covid-19 pandemic and initially created the low-income internet plan as part of its negotiationhere you gowith federal regulators to acquire NBCUniversal. But until the March rise, the company offered customers Internet Essentials lower broadband speeds the minimum set by the FCC for five years.
The Comcast ad also random, comes almost a week later Buzzfeed published an interview with a former Comcast employeeand, Chase Roper, who said that the current speed of the plan is not fast enough for students to participate in the course through Zoom. Video conferencing doesn’t just require a lot of bandwidth to downloadIt takes a lot of bandwidth to load also.
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“All the time spent on Zoom, load much more than usual, ”Katharine Trendacosta, associate director for policy and activism at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Gizmodo. “FCC-the defined minimum is set at a level that makes it easier for companies like Comcast to claim to cover more people, but as the pandemic has shown, that minimum is not enough for the modern era. ”
Comcast says it’s committed to setting it up 1,000 „lift zthe”(I mean free wifi access) in community centers across the country, by December 2021, including more in Philadelphia. “Many of the children who come to our clubs either don’t have the internet at home or they have it, but they can’t study at home for various reasons and they need a place to go,” said Lisabeth Marziello, President & CEO, Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia in Comcast’s press release.
On the one hand, it’s great that Comcast works with organizations like the Boys & Girls club to provide students with reliable internet access. However, Comcast is “lifting areas ” they are probably the result of communities fighting for them. Before the start of the 2020-2021 school year, Internet teachers, parents and supporters have been protesting for Comcast to provide a better internet Philadelphia students. The Philadelphia Inquirer At the time, protesters wanted Comcast to not only increase the speed for customers in its Internet Essentials plan, but also to open more free wifi hotspots. That was in August 2020, and Comcast customers on the Internet Essentials are right now about to get better internet speeds, almost in the middle of the spring semester.
It is a worrying reminder that Internet service providers have the ability to restructure their internet packages and even give up data caps and tolls whenever they want – they simply choose not to. In November 2020, Comcast announced it would do so start charging Xfinity customers in the Northeast U.S. declares $ 10 for every 50 GB of data above their monthly data limit of 1.2 TB. This change took effect last month.
From now on, customers who have not already made an unlimited plan –as those who pay for the Internet Essentials package –can benefit from waiving any fees for surcharges. But that stops at the end of this month. After that, customers receive a “courtesy” loan every year if they exceed the data limit accident.
Gizmodo contacted Comcast to inquire about the timing of today’s announcement and to find out if the company has intends to raise their data limit soon, but have not yet received a response. In the meantime, Massachusetts lawmakers have done it asked the Internet service provider to remove its data limit at least until the end of the pandemic.