Free Internet in parks? Council prepares wish list for Comcast

City Council may not be invited to the bargaining table where Philadelphia (PA) officials and Comcast executives are working out a new 15-year franchise agreement. But the legislative chamber is nonetheless making known its wish list of what it hopes Comcast can deliver. Council members want to ask Comcast questions that include: Can the company offer big-time support for the city's tech sector? Can it help public school students becomes America's most "digitally literate"? Can it offer free Internet in Philadelphia recreation centers, prisons, and parks? Two letters Council plans to send to Comcast lay out those questions and call for increased broadband access as a priority in the negotiations.

The letters also criticize the company for launching an expansion of its low-cost Internet program in Palm Beach County (FL) asking "what digital divide" exists there that does not in Philadelphia. "It would be great to send a message . . . that Comcast's hometown is a platinum example of bridging the digital divide," said Councilman Bobby Henon, whose office drafted the letters. "We want them to be a great partner, not a good partner."