Poor Americans Face Hurdles in Getting Promised Internet

Internet providers like Charter and Comcast have introduced offers of free and low-cost internet with great fanfare in the last several weeks. The companies have said they want to help connect poor Americans during a pandemic that has shifted much of life online. Schools and community organizations have aggressively promoted the offers. Scores of customers have tried to sign up. But people signing up for the programs have encountered unexpected difficulties and roadblocks, according to interviews with people who have tried to sign up or who have helped them. Their stories highlight the way that the pandemic has stretched the gap between Americans who have easy access to the internet and those who do not, cutting the latter group off from venues for learning, work and play. The benefits and rules of the offers vary widely, so a customer may not qualify for free service while someone in identical circumstances elsewhere in the country can sign up. Sometimes, people must endure hourslong waits on the phone to sign up, which can lead some to give up before they ever talk to a customer service agent. Others have been deterred by language barriers or are wary of requests for identification.

“We need a more stable solution that doesn’t have all the gaps in eligibility and delivery that these free and reduced offers provide us,” said Angela Siefer, the executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. Siefer supports a federal subsidy that would go directly to consumers to pay for home broadband.