After Defending Its Low-Cost Internet Offering, Comcast Agrees To Increase Speeds

In a victory for student activists pushing to close the digital divide, Comcast announced today that it will be increasing speeds for its low-cost Internet Essentials plan, which some families have said wasn’t fast enough for online learning.

Since the pandemic forced schools online last spring, students have been arguing that the speeds Comcast offered at a discount to low-income households — 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload — weren’t sufficient for remote classes, especially in homes with multiple people using the internet at the same...