Does Comcast Really Reach Out to Poor People?

Comcast is dangling the promise of expanding their cut-rate broadband service for poor families-- and helping to close the digital divide -- as US regulators decide whether to allow the acquisition of Time warner Cable. Yet programs by Comcast and other cable companies offering cheap Internet aren’t benefiting enough low-income families, critics say.

Comcast’s Internet Essentials, the biggest, has reached 350,000 households -- or about 13 percent of those eligible, according to one estimate. “Everybody would like to pretend they’re doing something,” said Harold Feld, senior vice president with Public Knowledge. “Cable has not done anything real in this space.” Critics such as Feld say cable companies use the programs as bargaining chips when they want something from government. In Washington, Comcast told the Federal Communications Commission that claims the signup process is cumbersome or that call-center workers don’t know about Internet Essentials are untrue and that it’s inaccurate to say the program isn’t publicized. The company has distributed some 37 million brochures and broadcast almost 4 million announcements.

[Dec 23]