The digital divide was a deep crisis in communities of color and poor communities even before the coronavirus, with cities like Philadelphia, Comcast's hometown, having the second worst broadband access of any big city in the US, because of poverty. Now, during the COVID-19 crisis,  the internet is the only way children can access school, and that millions of us can work.

Comcast and most other telecoms have offered expanded discount programs, but families with back bills, language or literacy barriers, or issues with documentation or proving they are poor are still shut out. Comcast opened hotspots at businesses and transit centers, but we shouldn't expect our kids to access school or camp with laptops sitting in parking lots.

Comcast could - right now - open the private residential wireless network they built without degrading our home connections or privacy. The head of the Philadelphia School District even begged them to, to get the over 20,000 kids without internet online. Comcast said no, pushing them instead to Internet Essentials, where they could access two months free of low-speed service and then pay $10/month afterwards.

Now is the time to go beyond discounts to internet as a human right. Comcast: drop the red tape, open up your residential wireless now, and help families truly access the internet for the length of the coronavirus crisis by opening up the residential network you own to millions of us still offline.