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Dear Friend,
Comcast just announced a data cap for all of its broadband internet customers—unless they fork over another $30 a month.1
The ISP giant is taking advantage of the millions of people who have begun to work from home because of the coronavirus pandemic, and because Ajit Pai’s FCC repealed net neutrality, we can’t stop Comcast from gouging us. But soon, that could change.
President-elect Joe Biden can begin to undo Pai’s damage by appointing an FCC chair and commissioners who will restore net neutrality. We’re putting grassroots pressure on the new administration to make sure that happens.
Will you donate to help ensure the Biden administration saves net neutrality?
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
The coronavirus pandemic has made one thing abundantly clear: the internet is not a luxury, any more than electricity or clean drinking water are.
The internet kept people working, students learning, and families connected when we were quarantined in our homes. It allowed us to share critical medical information and continue to see doctors and get groceries.
But the giant ISPs aren’t giving everyone the same access. AT&T, Comcast, and other major ISPs are discriminating against not only people in rural areas but also low-income city dwellers, according to several recent studies.2,3 68% of the country doesn’t have access to fiber internet.4 42 million people across the country don’t have access to broadband internet at all.5
The ISPs are basically committing digital redlining by only installing high-speed broadband in wealthier neighborhoods, causing a widening divide where poorer neighborhoods can’t access remote education and work opportunities like others can—all because FCC Chair Ajit Pai helped destroy net neutrality and gave these billion-dollar corporations free rein over our internet.
People in apartment buildings saw AT&T end DSL service but not replace it with fiber or cable. Others in unincorporated parts of towns that back up to neighborhoods with million-dollar houses can’t access the fiber those neighborhoods get. They make up 12% of the country.
That’s why Demand Progress is leading a coalition of net neutrality groups calling on Biden to appoint an FCC chair who will:
- immediately reinstate net neutrality and classify the internet as a utility,
- abolish digital redlining and outlaw discrimination via broadband access, including caps like Comcast's data caps, and
- incentivize the ISPs to finally fully deploy the 21st century networks they’ve sat on for 15 years.
2021 is going to be the year we get net neutrality back. Will you donate to help make it happen?
Yes, I’ll donate to help save net neutrality.
Thanks for standing with us.
Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress
Sources:
1. Ars Technica, "Comcast to enforce 1.2TB data cap in entire 39-state territory in early 2021," November 23, 2020
2. Cities, "Determinants of broadband access and affordability: An analysis of a community survey on the digital divide," September 9, 2020
3. Broadband Now, "Fiber-Optic Internet in the USA," November 25, 2020
4. Ibid.
5. Bloomberg City Lab, "There Are Far More Americans Without Broadband Access than Previously Thought," February 19, 2020
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