Biden praises ISPs for price cuts even as they ?sabotage? his FCC nominee

Consumer advocates are not impressed by President Biden's announcement that Internet service providers have agreed to provide cheap broadband to low-income Americans.Biden's announcement on Monday touted voluntary commitments from Comcast, Charter Spectrum, AT&T, Verizon, and 16 other ISPs to offer $30-per-month broadband to households eligible for discounts under the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Comcast recently hired a lobbyist to work on "FCC nominations," as reported in January."Some of the Internet service providers appearing at this White House event are sabotaging President Biden's FCC even as they pose for today's photo op," Free Press VP of Policy and General Counsel Matt Wood said yesterday. Republican senators have painted Sohn as an enemy of free speech, and lobbying campaigns against her nomination include one that implausibly claims she doesn't support the expansion of rural broadband.Biden is celebrating the same telecom companies that are "undermining his administration's broadband agenda," said the Community Broadband Networks Program at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an advocacy group for municipal Internet services."The Biden administration took a painfully long time to nominate the most obvious candidate for the position—Gigi Sohn—and has done precious little to have her confirmed in a reasonable time frame.