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Comcast rolls free Wi-Fi to low-income students Working in tandem with hundreds of nonprofits, Comcast has launched a program that aims to bring free Wi-Fi connectivity to low-income students in multiple US cities. Under that multiyear initiative, Comcast has pledged to deploy more than 1,000 Wi-Fi "Lift Zones" to hundreds of community centers, starting with facilities in markets such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, the Twin Cities in Minnesota and Washington, D.C.
Comcast said it will deploy 1,000-plus Wi-Fi 'Lift Zones' to hundreds of community centers around the country.
In addition to providing free Internet access, the initiative will also provide hundreds of hours of educational and digital skills content to help families with online learning, a need that's been on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to providing connectivity to students who don't have access at home, the Lift Zones also provide them with another place in which to study, Comcast said. The Lift Zones are an extension of Comcast's Internet Essentials, a program that provides Internet service (25Mbit/s downstream) for $9.95 per month to low-income households. Comcast estimates that more than 8 million people have taken part of the program since its debut in 2011. The Lift Zones initiative also follows Comcast's recent launch of a new Internet Essentials Program focused on helping cities, schools and community organizations connect low-income students to the Internet at home to support distance learning while many schools remain closed. Comcast said it has identified sites for the first 200 Lift Zones. Several are now open (the Harvey Johnson Community Center at Union Baptist Church in Baltimore, and the Olney Recreation Center in Philadelphia, among them), with plans to open others in more than a dozen cities this year.
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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading, special to Broadband World News |
Network neutrality advocates want the FCC to open a proceeding to reinstate broadband as a Title II service amid a pandemic that has amplified the need for broadband connectivity, particularly for low-income households.
Downstream speeds for broadband offering for low-income households rise to 50 Mbit/s, while upstream increases to 5 Mbit/s. Comcast will also accelerate rollout of Wi-Fi 'Lift Zones' for students.
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