Many businesses and sectors of the economy will face the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the closures and social distancing undertaken in the effort to control it. Tech companies, however, have an extra layer of interaction as providers and facilitators of information to the public about those measures, and how the public can continue to interact and work.
Across the nation and around the globe, businesses that can, have sent workers home to telecommute. Others have simply shut down temporarily or even laid off workers. That results in a dual challenge for tech companies: providing the means by which employees at home can continue to work as well as allowing access to critical public health information as those out of work face the prospect of being unable to pay the bills.
The White House and the Federal Communications Commission held several teleconferences with industry leaders, including Amazon, Apple, AT&T, CenturyLink, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Twitter, and more, on subjects ranging from controlling the spread of misinformation to suspending bandwidth usage caps and fees in the last week.
Following those discussions, the FCC on March 13 released the “Keep Americans Connected Pledge” and urged industry leaders to sign on.
The pledge reads:
Given the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on American society, [[Company Name]] pledges for the next 60 days to:
(1) not terminate service to any residential or small business customers because of their inability to pay their bills due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic;
(2) waive any late fees that any residential or small business customers incur because of their economic circumstances related to the coronavirus pandemic; and
(3) open its WiFi hotspots to any American who needs them.
Many of the nation’s internet service providers and telecom companies are committing to that pledge or implementing parts of it.
AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Cox, Mediacom, Sparklight, Sprint, and T-Mobile, for example, are all among the companies removing data caps during the crisis.
AT&T promised not to cancel any customer’s service for the next two months for late payment and will waive late fees on those payments once made. In addition to the lift on data caps, Comcast made Xfinity WiFi hotspots free for everyone for 60 days, including residents in its service areas who are not current Comcast subscribers. Verizon removed late fees “incurred because of economic circumstances related to the pandemic” and will also withhold disconnections.
Charter, too, has offered 60 days of free access to its Spectrum broadband service for new subscriber households with students, K-12 or college, to facilitate schooling from home. Sprint instituted unlimited data for all customers and is waiving late fees and suspending disconnections.
“Americans rely on high-speed broadband in nearly every aspect of their lives, and Charter is committed to ensuring our customers maintain reliable access to the online resources and information they want and need,” said Charter in a typical example of press releases from the committed companies.
The temporary measures could have more prolonged effects on the industry, too. TechCrunch has speculated that data caps and fees will be seen as all the more arbitrary once the public spends several months using as much data as it likes and it turns out increased usage had no detrimental consequence to the providers’ networks.
In the short term, there is little question that the downside of cutting off customers during an emergency, or worse, charging people quarantined in their homes for access to their workplace, far outweighs any concerns about future complications. And with these same companies sending their workforce to telecommute to varying degrees, it could even affect their service not to participate in the FCC’s pledge.
The entire process is taking place in the public eye. News and information on the virus is vital to containment, and millions of people access that through these networks. The actions taken by tech companies will be immediately visible to mostly everyone. And the FCC is taking the extra steps to make sure each person is aware of how the companies are responding.
Chairman Ajit Pai’s office sent the Washington Examiner this statement:
“I want to thank broadband and telephone service providers who have answered my call to take aggressive steps to help consumers during the coronavirus pandemic,” said Pai. “I welcome their hard work in finding ways to meet their customers’ changing needs and to keep Americans connected. I welcome these initiatives, hope even more companies will follow suit and look forward to continuing to work together with the private sector to help consumers get through the disruptions caused by the pandemic.”
