Enlarge / US President Joe Joe biden at an event on broadband discounts for low-income Americans, in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 9, 2022. (credit: Getty Images | Drew Angerer )
Consumer advocates are not impressed by President Biden’s announcement that Internet service providers have agreed to provide cheap broadband to low-income Americans.
Biden’s announcement on Monday touted voluntary commitments from Comcast, Charter Spectrum, AT& T, Verizon, and 16 other ISPs to offer $30-per-month broadband to households eligible for discounts under the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Each of the 20 companies “committed to offer all ACP-eligible families at least one high-speed plan [with download speeds of at least 100Mbps] for $30/month or less, with no additional fees and no data caps, ” the particular White House said. That effectively makes the broadband plans free for many people because the ACP provides eligible households with discounts associated with $30 a month.
At a press conference attended by representatives of ISPs, Biden called out Comcast, Charter, AT& T, Frontier, and Verizon. “You’re really changing people’s lives. You really are, ” the president said to the big broadband providers. Joe biden also praised “smaller providers serving rural areas, like Jackson Energy Authority in Tennessee and Ideatek in Kansas. ”
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