this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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President Joe Biden recently traveled to North Carolina to promote his goal of affordable internet access for all Americans, but the promise for 23 million families across the U.S. is on shaky ground.

That’s because a subsidy that helps people with limited resources afford internet access is set to expire this spring.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides $30 a month for qualifying families in most places and $75 on tribal lands, will run out of money by the end of April if Congress doesn’t extend it further.

“I think this should be high priority for Congress,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat who has worked with a bipartisan group of governors to promote the program, said in a phone interview. “To many families, $30 a month is a big deal.”

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Alternately, they could introduce more pricing regulations and antitrust crackdowns on internet providers, introduce legislation to explicitly allow municipal internet access, etc.

We have the 6th most expensive internet in the world; if we had cheaper internet (on par with what other first world countries offer), we wouldn't need these subsidies because it'd be cheap enough anyway.

[–] Blackbeard 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Officials sold out for $1.6 million? It's legit depressing how little the rights of their constituents are worth to them. Telcos making billions and these nobs hand everything away for a pittance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

This is the exact case I was referring to there. Having a public option for internet access, even if it was relatively slow compared to the big name brands, would be a huge step forward in terms of guaranteeing internet access for everyone. So of course the big players are going to go to whatever lengths they can to avoid it ever seeing the light of day. :(

[–] GlitzyArmrest 26 points 10 months ago (2 children)

We shouldn't be subsidizing giant corporations in the first place. How about just making proper, consumer protecting regulations instead?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Looking at the policy on the website here it looks like it's actually fairly reasonable. If you make less than x, are using a listed governmental assistance program, or qualify for the low-income isp plan then the cost is $30/month for 100Mbps Internet. The benefit that's listed in the article is the current subsidy that would remove the rest of the cost.

[–] GlitzyArmrest 12 points 10 months ago

Well, that's not really the problem. The problem is that the government is covering the difference (through subsidizing the mega-corps that offer this).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Because that would be actually doing something that isn't killing brown people across the ocean.

[–] Grimy 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Internet has always struck me as something that should be nationalized and supplied by the state (for free)

Everyone needs it and the whole nation just gets squeezed by these companies.

[–] Wrench 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And requires a lot of infrastructure on public roads and poles. Why this is still private after it was clear ISPs operated like gangs with turf is beyond me. It was clear that it should be nationalized 2 decades ago.

[–] ChonkyOwlbear 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The Constitution explicitly calls for the creation of the post office and postal roads. The same rationale that enabling fast reliable communication is a duty of government could easily be extended to the internet. It Biden pushed for this, emphasizing how it would enable people living in small rural towns to work remotely, he would steal a large amount of traditionally Republican voters.

[–] Wrench 9 points 10 months ago

Even in high density cities. Google fiber failed to bring fast and cheap internet to most of the country because the ISP mafias made it impossible.

Ohh, you need access to this public pole? Well, by law (that we lobbied for), you have to have a representative from each ISP connected to that pole to be present. Looks like we're booked for a year. Oh, sorry, something came up and we weren't able to make the meeting you set up a year ago. Guess you'll have to try again, but oh look, we're booked for another years. Sowee

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

My power company put in fiber. Now my internet is a coop utility. 0 reason this shouldn't be nation wide, especially for coops

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The subsidies ISPs who spent their time hiking up rates on their customers and blocking access to actual high-speed fiber lines that are already there? What good were those subsidies doing for the people anyhow?