To get the NBC acquisition approved, Comcast last year proposed a condition requiring they offer $10, 1.5 Mbps broadband tier (dubbed "Internet Essentials") to low income homes. As we pointed out last summer, however, actually getting the offer wasn't so simple. Program applicants have to qualify for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), can't owe Comcast money or equipment, can't currently have any Comcast broadband service, and can't have had service in the last ninety days.
As you might expect, most low-income homes live in debt, and much of that debt is for a very common service (TV). A Comcast insider informed us last year that many applicants were getting rejected as a result. Last December, groups representing low-income individuals started noticing that the program seemed designed to minimize the number of people who would actually benefit from it. Many low-income families weren't qualifying, or had no idea the program existed.
Things bubbled over a little further this week with protesters in Philadelphia again accusing Comcast of making Internet Essentials too difficult to actually get. Originally, officials had insisted that the program could bring cheap broadband to 150,000 students in Philadelphia alone. Of the 3.5 million National School Lunch Program (NSLP) families in the districts Comcast worked with, the company says they've connected 41,000 families nationwide so far. That's certainly not nothing, but it's a far cry from the totals predicted at a series of city launches that delivered oodles of positive PR for Comcast.
Responding to criticism, Comcast today announced they are going to shore up some parts of the program. Among the changes, Comcast says they're going to ramp up eligibility to include families that qualify for reduced price school lunches (not just the NSLP), a move Comcast estimates will increase potential homes by 300,000. The company's also going to up the speed of the offering from 1.5 Mbps to 3 Mbps downstream and up to 768 Kbps upstream, more in line with the minimum definition of broadband.
"As gratifying as these early results are to Comcast, we recognize there is still a long road ahead," said Comcast Public Policy VP David Cohen. "We remain firmly committed to the important cause of providing low-income families with an opportunity to connect to affordable broadband service," said Cohen. That commitment, at least as it currently stands, is expected to last for another two years or so, after which qualifying families will revert to less opportunity-creating standard Comcast rates.
On one hand, you don't want to be too critical of Comcast's effort because the fact they're doing anything at all for struggling families is obviously better than nothing. On the other hand, you'd be naive to believe Comcast didn't originally design the program to exclude as many potential families as possible as a hollow NBC merger condition. Still, that the company is willing to move a little on speed and qualification requirements is certainly welcome news to low-income residents.
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Comcast Shores Up $10 Broadband Offer - Bumps Speed to 3 Mbps, Increases Availability by 300,000
Posted: January 31st, 2012, 12:45pm MST