Comcast expands access to low-cost internet, computers

The $9.95 per month internet access Comcast offers low-income schoolkids is now available to all Comcast-area families living in federally subsidized housing.

The change opens the door to 5,000 households in Stanislaus County within the Comcast cable area, principally Modesto, and 3,000 families in Merced County, according to company figures. An additional 200 families in Tuolumne County, 50 households in Calaveras County and 1,000 homes in Madera County are now eligible.

The Internet Essentials program offers $9.95 monthly plans to students who qualify for free lunches or who go to schools where more than half of all students qualify, in Modesto and other communities the cable provider serves. Those on the service can also buy a basic computer for $150 and sign up for free computer training. About 600,000 families take advantage of the program nationwide.

The ConnectHome initiative expands the program to households, with or without children, living in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-assisted housing. HUD-assisted homes include so-called Section 8 housing and public housing projects.

One in four American households now lack internet access at home, most of them low-income, by HUD figures. Yet 90 percent of college applications are done online, as are job applications, signing up for health care, paying bills and many other key connections and conveniences routinely accessed by higher-income households, said HUD Secretary Julián Castro in announcing the program.

“Internet access is about much more than modems and millibytes per second,” Castro said, “This could have an impact that lasts for generations.”

“The digital divide becomes a homework divide for kids in school, with 79 percent of teachers assigning homework that requires digital access,” said David Cohen, Comcast chief diversity officer.

Cohen estimated 40 percent of HUD-assisted housing falls within the Comcast footprint. Expanding low-cost internet access will open it to low-income seniors, veterans and others, he said.

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Comcast expands access to low-cost internet, computers."