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Comcast’s Internet Essentials program to speed up service for low-income customers

Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

Comcast’s Internet Essentials program to speed up service for low-income customers

Comcast Corp. will increase the internet speeds offered in its program that provides high-speed internet to low-income households.

The company announced this week that internet speeds for participants in its Internet Essentials program will be increased in the fall to 15 Mbps of download speeds and 2 Mbps of upload speeds.

The program will also add 40 hours per month of free out-of-home Xfinity WiFi hotspots. 

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Since it began in 2011, one million households have enrolled in Internet Essentials, including nearly 12,000 in the Pittsburgh metro area, according to Comcast. The program costs $9.95 per month, plus tax, and is available to households with children who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch at school, public housing residents and, in some markets, to low-income seniors and community college students. 

Forty hours per month of free hotspots are the equivalent of two hours of out-of-home access per school night, said David L. Cohen, Comcast’s senior executive vice president and chief diversity officer.

Sixty-two percent of Internet Essentials customers said having the internet service helped someone in their household find employment, according to Comcast.

 Ninety-eight percent said their children use the service to do homework, and 93 percent said the program has had a positive impact on their child’s grades. 

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Mr. Cohen said the company is “thrilled” by that last result. 

“That is also a depressing statistic when you think about what those children were doing to do their homework before the program,” he said. 

For more information about Internet Essentials: www.internetessentials.com or 1-855-846-8376. 

Elizabeth Behrman: Lbehrman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.

First Published: August 18, 2017, 12:30 p.m.

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