If you’re eligible for the new “Emergency Broadband Benefit” (EBB) program (federal) and are a Centurylink customer, they try to force you to upgrade your service to one that is “FCC approved” before they will allow you to have the EBB discount. If you do upgrade, you end up paying the same amount after the EBB is applied as you are already paying without it, and, when the EBB expires, you CAN’T go back to the service you originally had with C’link; your bill will be DOUBLE what it was before the EBB.
In other words C’link is using this new program, designed to help low-income people afford internet service, to force those low-income people onto higher-priced services.