The FCC is announcing a terrific new program but only if you’re poor. According to the Washington Post, the Federal Communications Commission is “vexed” that all the citizens who can get the Internet aren’t choosing to get the Internet. The solution the FCC has devised is to pressure private cable companies to give poor people internet service for free, or practically so, at a rate of $10 per month. Anyone eligible for the federal free lunch program — that’s $25 million people — can sign up and get free installation, no monthly rental charge for the cable modem for two years and a computer for $150.
Just one question: Why shouldn’t those who are middle class get free Internet? If the government is saying that all Americans should be hooked up to the Internet, because it is a necessary service, why not force the cable companies to lower rates for everyone? How about just for the unemployed? Why should someone who is looking for work have to pay for Internet (a necessary service to find a job), while they obviously have a need but little way to afford it.
And what about the cost to the cable companies? Aren’t they just going to pass on the cost to the rest of us paying full freight? You bet they will. Just send FFC Chairman Julius Genachowski a note of thanks when your cable bill goes up.
UPDATE: Very few people will be helped by this new program. According estimates by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association only “about 5.5 million homes that don’t have broadband will be eligible for the offer.” And then it turns out that the families that want broadband already have it. “According to the Commerce Department study, 78 percent of households with school-age children already have broadband, making them far more likely to be connected than the average household.”