Underline's affordable fiber program challenges incumbents

Fiber network provider Underline Infrastructure launched its Opportunity Program to provide low-cost, high-tier internet service for households that qualify for the federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). “If a family qualifies for the ACP—and we're honored to serve them—we will serve up no less of a performance or a service tier than what a 'paying family' would receive,” Thompson said. “The reality is, when you hand a poor family a new bill of any note, that new bill typically provokes a decision on whether they take on that new bill and cancel mom or dad's cell phone, or whether they can't take on that new bill in order to preserve mom or dad's capacity to have a cell phone and can participate in the employment economy.” In light of that “Faustian choice,” as Thompson called it, ACP-qualifying families that select the starting tier of service of symmetric 500 Mbps will not be charged on top of the $30 that the federal government reimburses. This compares to Comcast’s offerings for ACP-eligible households: speeds “up to 50Mbps” and speeds “up to 100 Mbps.” And Underline claims its offerings are 10-20 times faster on a full fiber connection. “Large incumbents have historically either neglected to build into poorer neighborhoods or poor demographics, or if they have built into those poor neighborhoods, they serve up very poor service, and that creates an additional barrier to kids in those demographics, being able to achieve in an educational context,” Thompson said. He said big incumbents like Comcast are “somewhat famous” for advertising programs that are similar to Underline’s Opportunity Program, but often their programs don’t reach the same outcome. “They offer a ‘special’ service to those families, by which that means 50/10. Or they'll bill it as 100/20 to try to satisfy the regulators, but they'll throttle the performance. So once again, a poorer family gets something that's worse than the people six blocks over,” Thompson said.