A lot of communities are closing schools and, of course, many of those workers who can are now working from home. This makes a lot of sense, but there are families who simply can’t afford high-speed home Internet.
Since 2011, Comcast has offered a program called Internet Essentials, which offers broadband to eligible low income customers for $10 a month. And now it’s offering new customers free access for 60 days.
Higher speed
Until now, the speeds were capped at 15 megabits per second (MBPS) for downloads and 2 MBPS for uploading but Comcast is increasing them to 25 and 3, which should be more than enough for distance learning and telecommuting applications, including video conferencing. Existing customers don’t need to do anything — they will automatically get the speed increase.
New customers will get a free self-install kit that includes a cable modem with a Wi-Fi router. There will be no term contract or credit check and no shipping fee.
The service is available for people who are eligible for public assistance programs such as the National School Lunch Program, Housing Assistance, Medicaid, SNAP, SSI and others.
You can sign up at www.internetessentials.com or call 1-855-846-8376 for English and 1-855-765-6995 for Spanish.
Disclosure: Larry Magid is CEO of ConnectSafely.org, a non-profit internet safety organization that has received support from Comcast.