Comcast deal could end $10 broadband for low-income K-12 families in Detroit, Twin Cities

[Commentary] When asked to describe the public benefits of their controversial plan to buy out Time Warner Cable, Comcast executives eagerly point to the expansion of Internet Essentials, Comcast's three-year-old program that provides $10 broadband accounts to families with children who qualify for Federal school lunch subsidies. If the Time Warner deal is allowed, Comcast promises the program will continue to expand its user base of low-income households in its current market areas -- now pegged at about 300,000 -- and expand aggressively in the former Time Warner markets as well. But what many have failed to notice that one of the first effects of the deal, if greenlighted by the FCC, will be to terminate $10 Internet Essentials service for tens of thousands of poor families who are already using it. These families are among the 2.5 million customers whom Comcast is proposing to "spin off" to a newly formed cable Internet corporation called "GreatLand Connections".

[Aug 31]