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AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Comcast extend vow to not cut off service amid COVID-19 crisis:
The nation's largest wireless and broadband companies are extending their promise to not disconnect service through June 30, in an effort to help customers through the COVID-19 crisis. In March, these service providers voluntarily signed on to the Federal Communications Commission's Keep Americans Connected pledge.
Wireless providers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, along with the nation's largest cable provider, Comcast, have each extended for another seven weeks their commitment to not charge late fees or disconnect service of customers who can't pay their bills. Comcast has also said it'll extend its free offer of the Internet Essentials program for low-income individuals through the end of June. And the cable giant said it will suspend requirements that prevent eligible customers from taking advantage of the service if they have an outstanding balance with the company.
[...] More than 700 broadband and wireless companies have signed on to the pledge, according to the FCC. As part of the pledge, wireless and cable broadband providers have opened up their public Wi-Fi hotspots for free, promised not to terminate service if subscribers can't pay and waived overage and late fees.
AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon each said they won't terminate service or charge late fees for residential or small-business customers so long as customers notify the companies about their inability to pay due to the coronavirus crisis.
The pledge and its extension also applies to home broadband and TV services from AT&T and Verizon.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday April 29 2020, @11:39AM
The marginal cost of them doing it is low, so why not? If they cut people off and those people then spend extended periods doing other things and forming other habits, it becomes more difficult and expensive to lure them back with advertising campaigns. Also, more broadly speaking, if people are isolated with no way to connect or communicate with others, the potential for civil unrest climbs; civil unrest is very bad for business.
To me, though, it points up the increasing importance of extending the open source philosophy beyond software and some hardware to the physical networks themselves. It should not be possible for any corporation or government to silence the populace by flipping a switch.
Washington DC delenda est.