WASHINGTON—Twenty internet providers, including AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., have agreed to help offer high-speed internet to millions of unconnected households through the bipartisan infrastructure law, Biden administration officials said.
About 11.5 million households have signed up for the monthly subsidy, according to the Federal Communications Commission, which oversees the subsidies. The aid is available to households whose income is 200% or less than federal poverty guidelines or for those that qualify for a government assistance program such as Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or a Federal Pell Grant.
A previous version set up by Congress in 2020 was called the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, which provided people with $50 a month. That has been replaced by the $30 subsidy and the prior program has been rolled into the current one. [I wonder if anyone in the Senate complained that poor folk would be watching porn if they had better internet?]
Officials estimated that there are about 48 million eligible households, which the administration is attempting to enroll in the program.
A dissent by FCC commissioner Brendan Carr said Starlink needed to show it could provide service to at least 40% of roughly 640,000 rural areas by the end of 2025. Carr criticized the FCC’s decision, saying the commission “did not require–and has never required–any other award winner to show that it met its service obligation years ahead of time.”
Is it somewhere in the constitution that people who choose to live in rural climes have a right to have internet access? Electricity? We got over that in the 1930’s, only after major fights. When did access to Reddit become a basic right? They already have telephones, let them use AOL.
For decades, phone bills had a “universal service fee” to subsidize rural phone service. I remember when AT&T was pressing for the universal service fee to be paid to them to expand cell phone coverage, rather than landline.
Apparently, only 27% of homes still have a landline, though I don’t see a breakout of who has POTS service (what the USF was intended to subsidize) vs having home phone via a broadband service like U-Verse or FIOS. Only 2% of households have a land line and no cell phone. Another source says the number of POTS lines in the US fell from 122M in 2010, to 41M in 2019. Several years ago, AT&T asked the Michigan PSC for permission to shut off many rural POTS lines, whether the customer wanted to retain it or not, if the customers could, in theory, reach a cell tower somewhere.
So, with U-Verse, FIOS and cell, all of which carry internet as well as voice, being the thing for the overwhelming majority of USians, is there a difference between subsidizing voice and subsidizing internet?
School districts insist on giving on line homework, so yes, all the kids need to have internet access. Our kids got tablets from school to use for their homework. Sure, makes grading easier, but was tough to regulate their use of the internet. Handwriting went to hell in a handbasket, and basic research skills were never developed.
We were living near there at the time, in the Philly burbs. Until the point where they were handed out tablets to do their homework on, our one computer was in a downstairs room where we could monitor what they were using it for, and phones were with us when they were at home. It helped to keep them actually doing their homework when up in their room. We as parents were doing what we were supposed to do in restricting screens, but the schools interfered.
Computers are great tools, but they are not the only tool one needs to understand how to access. Our enemies only need to send out EMPs to ruin our technology and they would cripple our ability to respond. Our dependence on tech is extreme, and I find it unfortunate that the schools are no longer teaching how to think without the computer thinking for you. But since they are, it’s critical that all students have access to a good internet source.
FEMA sending Starlink satellites, search-and-rescue teams to aid Helene’s victims https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/29/fema-starlink-helene-victims-00181576
“FEMA is sending in search-and-rescue teams and bottled water, as well as trying to get water systems back online, not only in North Carolina but the other states impacted too. Starling satellites have also been moved in to facilitate the lack of communication that part of the state is experiencing,” according to Criswell.
