These Teenagers Are Taking On Comcast To Demand Faster Speeds For Remote Learning

As remote learning dragged on through 2020, the coronavirus pandemic pitted Comcast against an unlikely opponent: a group of teenagers. Baltimore-based student activists have been waging a campaign for faster internet speeds and arguing that Internet Essentials isn’t always fast enough for successful distance learning. Comcast has repeatedly insisted that its speeds meet the Federal Communications Commission standard for high-speed broadband — but now, a former employee who quit his job in frustration has come forward to say that, based on his experience, Internet Essentials isn’t providing the service students need to learn. “If it was working technically and that was enough, there wouldn’t be so many people calling with problems,” said former Comcast employee Chase Roper. He quit Comcast in part because of how difficult it was for him to tell Internet Essentials customers who were struggling to get online that the only way to improve their speeds was to upgrade to a more expensive service. “Why offer a thing that meets the bare minimum technical requirement when that’s not going to be enough?” said Roper. “Why not say, ‘You qualify for this kind of assistance; let’s give you an upload speed in the double digits so your kid can access their education’?”