An announcement today from a public housing development in Miami marks the eighth time in five years that Comcast has expanded eligibility for Internet Essentials, its broadband adoption program for low-income Americans, according to the company.
David L. Cohen, senior executive vice president and chief diversity officer at Comcast and Julián Castro, secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), unveiled a pilot program with ConnectHome to extend eligibility for Internet Essentials to public housing residents in Miami-Dade County and the cities of Nashville, Philadelphia and Seattle.
“ConnectHome is expanding opportunity for the next generation, preparing them for success in the 21st Century,” Castro says. “We’re thankful to have Comcast join the ConnectHome initiative and our continued efforts to close the digital divide. Through their commitment and all of our great stakeholders, public and private, we’re leveling the playing field for public housing residents across the nation and opening doors to prosperity that otherwise would remain closed.”
Comcast’s Cohen used a blog post to point out that in less than five years, Internet Essentials has connected more than 2.4 million Americans, or more than 600,000 low-income families, to the Internet at home. “To put that in perspective, 2.4 million people is larger than the populations of 97 of the 100 largest cities in America,” he writes.
Cohen further reports that 2015 was the program’s single most successful year, with a 30 percent increase in enrollments over 2014.
Internet Essentials was originally designed for families with children eligible to receive a free school lunch. The cable operator expanded it to children eligible for a reduced price school lunch and families with children in all types of schools (parochial, private, charter, cyber and home-schooled students). Comcast has also expanded it on a pilot basis to low-income seniors and low-income community college students.
Comcast techs installed Internet service today to Rainbow Village residents in Miami who had signed up, Cohen says. “We are also providing a free laptop computer and six months’ worth of complimentary Internet Essentials Internet service to every Rainbow Village household, in addition to donating 15 computers to the Rainbow Village computer lab where they teach digital literacy programs to students after school and adults in the evenings,” he adds.
