The FCC has voted to allow low-income families to apply the $9.25 monthly subsidy for voice connectivity to include online data access. The 3-2 vote was along party lines (democrats for and republicans against). As I understand the objection to this plan, it involved the lack of a cap on how much the program would cost. I suppose this might be considered a partially unfunded mandate as there would be no way to know how many might want to take advantage of the program and thus how much it would cost. Funding issues are always critical, but with a cap how would the program work? Would those first in line be subsidized and late comers be out of luck?
Providers must be willing to provide at least 500mb of data or 500 minutes of voice service. If I understand this minimum correctly, the required data minimum would seem too low for providing access to video services (e.g., Kahn Academy). The Education Week article was unclear on the specifics, but I interpret the minimum to mean this is what a low income family would get if contributing nothing to the plan and also that providers could offer more to compete for customers.