By Christopher Cole

Law360 (May 8, 2020, 6:21 PM EDT) -- Several U.S. Senate Democrats are urging Comcast to open up Wi-Fi hot spots so that children who otherwise can't access the internet can take classes online while schools remain shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a senior Democrat, wrote a letter with Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., to the cable giant's top executive urging him to allow free access to publicly available hot spots that are powered by home subscribers' routers to be accessed by schoolchildren whose families can't afford service.

The lawmakers gave Comcast credit for taking actions to make the internet more accessible during the crisis, but said the home-based Wi-Fi hot spots are urgently needed for education.

"The COVID-19 pandemic and its related mitigation strategies have shuttered schools across country, leaving teachers and students forced to navigate the necessary but difficult transition to virtual classrooms," the senators wrote to Brian Roberts, Comcast's chairman and CEO, on Thursday.

"Unfortunately, this new burden is disproportionately borne by the 12 million students in rural and low-income areas of the United States who lack reliable internet access at home," they said. 

The Senate trio's efforts are among the latest developments in a push on Capitol Hill to expand internet access as the novel coronavirus keeps  schools and other gathering places closed to the public. Last week, Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., the House majority whip, unveiled a legislative initiative to make federal funds available for broadband growth. Several Senate Democrats are also pursuing $4 billion in funds specifically for remote learning.

Wyden, Harris and Booker noted that Comcast operates one of the largest collections of public Wi-Fi access points in the country, powered by routers it rents to millions of business and residential customers. Comcast modems are configured to operate two different Wi-Fi networks: the first, a password-protected network for the subscriber, and the second, a network available for nonsubscribers who pay for access passes.

According to the letter, after Wyden's office asked Comcast to drop the paywall on the residential public Wi-Fi networks, Comcast staff said doing so could create network congestion. "Comcast's excuse simply does not add up," the senators said, noting past statements by the company that the subscriber and public networks are maintained separately.

A Comcast spokesperson told Law360 in an email Friday that the company "has taken multiple unprecedented steps to make broadband more accessible during this crisis."

"We've offered free internet for 60 days for new low-income customers eligible for our Internet Essentials program. We opened our 1.5 million business and outdoor Wi-Fi hot spots for anyone to use for free across the country for the first time, and are keeping them open until June 30," the spokesperson said. "We have committed not to disconnect service or to charge late fees to our customers who are unable to pay due to the pandemic."

Further, according to Comcast, "our broadband network has seen extraordinary growth in traffic, and has performed exceedingly well at this new record level of traffic due to our substantial investment in our network and the herculean efforts of our front-line technicians and workers. Our engineering teams are focused on the critical work of supporting our network to allow the millions of Americans who now depend on it to stay connected through the current crisis."

--Editing by John Campbell.

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