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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday March 06 2021, @02:22PM   Printer-friendly

FCC approves $50 monthly internet subsidies for low-income households during pandemic:

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved final rules for a new broadband subsidy program that could help struggling families pay for internet service during the pandemic.

The agency's $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit Program provides eligible low-income households with up to a $50 per month credit on their internet bills through their provider until the end of the pandemic. In tribal areas, eligible households may receive up to $75 per month. The program also provides eligible households up to $100 off of one computer or tablet.

The congressionally created program is aimed at closing the digital divide, which has become painfully apparent over the past year as millions of Americans have been forced to work and learn remotely. Some have also raised concerns that the digital divide could affect access to the vaccine as signups typically happen online.

[...] Last year, Congress passed a coronavirus relief package that contained provisions for the FCC's new program. And the FCC has established a fresh task force this year to improve the data it collects on broadband availability, which could ultimately help the agency better target its efforts to close the gap.

[...] "This is a program that will help those at risk of digital disconnection," Rosenworcel said in a statement. "It will help those sitting in cars in parking lots just to catch a Wi-Fi signal to go online for work. It will help those lingering outside the library with a laptop just to get a wireless signal for remote learning. It will help those who worry about choosing between paying a broadband bill and paying rent or buying groceries."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 06 2021, @06:01PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 06 2021, @06:01PM (#1120847)

    Go back a few thousand years. Humans and protohumans have been in both Americas for 30,000 years. What we call “natives” were far from the first arrivals.

    New discoveries are literally rewriting history. We’re all out of Africa. Eliminated the competition there too. Nobody arose spontaneously anywhere else in the world, not even the @native people.” They came from Africa too ultimately. And succeeding waves often eliminated previous inhabitants, same as they eliminated Neanderthals in Europe. We’re rewriting the last 300,000 years of Homo sapiens history, and the last 35,000 years of colonization of the Americas. There are literally no “natives “ anywhere in the world today. So treat everyone as brothers and sisters, and treat them equally. Because we all are member of an invasive species with a long history of being absolutely awful to each other.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 06 2021, @06:31PM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 06 2021, @06:31PM (#1120852) Journal

    OK, yeah, it seems to be more people are accepting that humans arrived in the Americas in waves, starting long before the Clovis. As for "eliminating" the competition? I suspect that the competition was absorbed, as often as not. We have people today with Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA in their makeup. With both, it was a combination of elimination and absorption. If/when we find the evidence of the very first man or man like person on the American continents, we will probably also figure out that our ancestors interbred with them. I'll make no claims to that interbreeding being entirely consensual. I expect that the men were probably killed off and/or enslaved, and the women taken as slaves, including wives, concubines, and sex slaves.

    I'm not going digging today, but there is already evidence of separate groups of people in South America arriving, prospering, then being displaced to other parts of the continent. A lot of their descendants are still there today.

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday March 07 2021, @02:08PM (1 child)

      by Immerman (3985) on Sunday March 07 2021, @02:08PM (#1121033)

      Perhaps there've been more recent discoveries, but as I recall genetic evidence suggests that none of the early-wave American peoples have any living descendants - none of their distinctive genetic markers have been found in any modern individual.

      What's still not clear is whether the newcomers wiped out the previous waves, or the previous waves had already died out before they arrived. However, the fact that there was apparently no intermixing suggests they had already died out - even the most bloodthirsty invaders tend to at least keep some of the prettiest women.