Comcast Offers Cheap Internet To Low-Income Families With Schoolkids

Comcast is offering a update to their program for low-income families with school children to provide them affordable Internet, they announced earlier this week.

They cited the increasing need of children to have access to the Internet for education as one reason for the changes.

Internet will now be as low as $9.95 a month under the “Internet Essentials” plan for families that qualify.

To qualify, families must meet the following criteria:

• Have at least one child who qualifies for the National School Lunch Program.
• Do not have outstanding debt to Comcast that is less than a year old. Families with outstanding debt more than one year old may still be eligible.
• Live in an area where Comcast Internet Service is available but have not subscribed to it within the last 90 days.

Comcast said that 95% of students surveyed noted that the past incarnations of the Internet Essentials program improved their grades.

Over two million low-income citizens from over 500,000 families have benefited from the program thus far, according to Comcast.

“This program has grown to be our largest and most successful community investment initiative, and is now a part of our organizational DNA,” Comcast said on their website. “The spirit of the program truly aligns with our mission to improve and enrich our communities. When our communities thrive, so do we.”

Other changes to the program include increased download speeds (from 5 Megabits per second to 10 Mbps), along with a free Wi-Fi router.

To see if you qualify and to apply, please see the Internet Essential page here.