| Tell the FCC: Stop Charter from instituting data caps & limiting people’s internet access.
Friend,
The COVID-19 crisis, remote learning and the digital divide are threatening to pull families apart.
Last month, The Boston Globe reported on how the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) investigated several families in predominantly Black and Brown communities simply because their children weren’t logging in to virtual classes. Two parents in Lynn who were reported to DCF didn’t receive information about how to obtain laptops and access the internet because they don’t use Facebook or email.1
For decades the government has refused to hold ISPs accountable for runaway broadband prices and digital redlining. Couple that with the disgusting criminalization of Black and Brown people and you have a recipe for disaster.
And what is Charter — one of the nation’s largest ISPs — doing amid all of this? Petitioning the FCC to allow the company to institute data caps, which would further limit people’s internet access — despite promising that it wouldn’t do so if the FCC greenlit its merger with Time Warner Cable.
ISPs’ greediness truly knows no bounds. Demand that the FCC deny Charter’s request.
Data caps are arbitrary at best during normal times and could have deadly consequences during a pandemic. Millions of people across the country are struggling to make ends meet while internet providers like Charter are raking in profits. Now more than ever, people are relying on the internet to access online education, health care, information on how to stay safe during the pandemic and other basic services.
Capping data doesn’t serve any technological purpose for internet providers — all it does is raise prices and restrict internet access at a time when people need it more than ever. And Charter is doing just fine without data caps — the company just reported record growth and revenues, performing just as well or better than competitors like Comcast that do use data caps.
Pure and simple, this is about greed and maximizing profits at the expense of our communities. Tell the FCC to stop Charter from imposing unnecessary and expensive data caps.
Thanks for all that you do—
Heather, Dana, Lucia and the rest of the Free Press team
freepress.net
P.S. Charter says it just wants to be allowed to do what other ISPs are doing — but no ISP should be allowed to cap data, now or ever. When millions are stuck at home trying to keep themselves and their communities safe, unlimited affordable internet access is a literal lifesaver. The FCC should urge other ISPs like Comcast to ditch data caps too — not give Charter the go-ahead to be just as bad as them.
1. “Your Child’s a No-Show at Virtual School? You May Get a Call from the State’s Foster Care Agency,” The Boston Globe, Aug. 15, 2020 |
