By Renee Larr
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak and area schools moving to e-learning days, Comcast is making changes to the Internet Essentials program to support bandwidth for e-learning curriculum.
“Internet Essentials is an internet plan that is offered to anyone on government assistance,” said Mike Wilson, Comcast Indiana Spokesman. “That means anybody who’s taking advantage of free and reduced lunches programs or any other federal assistance can take advantage of Internet Essentials.”
Comcast is offering new customers 60 days of complimentary Internet Essentials service, which is usually available to all qualified low-income households for $9.95 per month.
“In times like this, we try to find ways that as an internet service provider that we can give back to the community,” Wilson said. “We know parents have their kids at home now and are trying to adapt to the measures put in place with e-learning.”
To keep up with the demand of families with kids studying from home, Comcast also has increased the speed of the Internet Essentials plan from 15/2 Mbps to 25/3 Mbps.
“Families will be able to stream e-learning programs based on that 25 megabits per second a lot easier than you would have before without adjusting any resolution,” Wilson said.
Even seniors can take advantage of the program if they qualify.
“We want seniors to know they’re able to take advantage of this to connect with their doctors via conferencing services or eMedicine,” Wilson said. “We know people still need that connection during social isolation.”
Current Internet Essentials customers will receive the higher speed automatically. Comcast will send all new customers a free self-install kit that includes a cable modem with a Wi-Fi router. There will be no term contract, credit check or shipping fee.
To see if you qualify and to apply, visit internetessentials.com or call 855-846-8376 for English and 855-765-6995 for Spanish.
