from the this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept In late 2023, I wrote a  feature for The Verge  exploring the FCC’s attempt to stop race and class discrimination in broadband deployment. For decades, big telecoms have not only  refused to evenly upgrade broadband in low income and poor areas  ( despite billions in subsidies for this exact purpose ), they’ve provably charged poor and minority neighborhoods significantly  more money  for worse service. To be clear: the Biden FCC’s plan didn’t actually stop such discrimination . The previous FCC didn’t even have the moral courage to call out big telecoms with a history of such practices (see: AT&T’s “digital redlining” in cities like  Cleveland  and  Detroit ). The FCC simply acknowledged that this discrimination clearly exists and set up a complaint process for consumers who had been discriminated against.…