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CNN’s Randi Kaye interviews Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen about the company’s new Internet Essentials program in this video.
According to the United States Census Bureau, huge numbers of American families do not yet have access to the internet. That includes 47.2% of Hispanic households, 45.5% of African-American households, 29.5% of white households and 19.5% of Asian households.
Cable giant Comcast has launched a new program called Internet Essentials to solve that problem. The company is charging just $9.95 per month and its goal is to make the internet more affordable for these low income Americans. Let’s call Internet Essentials exactly what it is: cheap internet service.
Qualifying for the $9.95 per month internet service is simple: Any family with a child in the free National School Lunch Program (NSLP) automatically is automatically eligible.
Comcast is now offering Internet Essentials in more than 4,000 school districts in 39 states and the District of Columbia. The company estimates that as many as 3 million households are eligible in its service areas.
As astounding as that $9.95 per month price sounds, it’s just the beginning. Comcast is also making it possible for qualifying families to buy a computer for just $150. And there are none of those annoying activation or equipment fees, either.
“The basic life skills, the enhancement to the educational experience, access to healthcare, access to vocational opportunities, are equalized through access to the internet,” Cohen noted. “…I think that’s the public policy underpinning, if you will, of all of the efforts that exist in America to try and close the digital divide – to equalize opportunity, to level the playing field, and give every kid in America the opportunity to compete and to succeed regardless of the zip code where they live or the income level of their parents.”
There are a couple limitations to the program – you cannot have been a Comcast internet subscriber for at least 90 days and you cannot have any overdue Comcast bills or unreturned equipment.
Bravo, Comcast, bravo. (And we’re not talking about the cable channel.)
For further information, go to CheapInternet.com
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