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Comcast seeks more to cross the 'digital divide'
[October 12, 2012]

Comcast seeks more to cross the 'digital divide'


Oct 12, 2012 (Richmond Times-Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The nation's largest Internet provider is starting the second year of a program that offers discount broadband access to low-income families.



In its first year, about 100,000 households nationwide, including about 1,800 in Virginia, signed up for Comcast's Internet Essentials program.

The service costs $9.95 a month for households that qualify. The program also offers vouchers to subscribers to purchase a low-cost computer for $150.


Comcast is offering the discount service in an effort to close the "digital divide," which refers in part to the high rate of low-income families who do not have broadband Internet access.

That puts children in low-income households at a disadvantage at a time when school work increasingly requires Internet access, speakers said Thursday at a kickoff event for the second year of the program. The event was held at Chimborazo Elementary School in Richmond.

"Even if people have Internet access sitting right outside their home, there are too many people who are not actually accessing the Internet," said Kyle McSlarrow, a regional president for Comcast/NBC Universal in Washington where he leads public policy and regional business operations.

The program is available to families with children who receive or are eligible for the National School Lunch Program.

But Comcast has expanded the program to include households with children eligible to receive not just free lunch, but reduced-price lunch.

McSlarrow said the company has not set a specific number of households it wants to sign up.

About 2.3 million families nationwide meet the eligibility requirements, and more than 16,000 children in Richmond meet the school lunch requirements.

For the second year, "we have tried to make it more seamless and easier to apply," he said.

The company also doubled the broadband speeds to 3 Mbps per second, while enhancing the Internet safety software and a digital literacy training program.

McSlarrow noted that most Fortune 500 companies now expect job seekers to submit their applications online. "If you are not online, you are missing out on opportunities," he said.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, who attended the kickoff event, said the Comcast program is the largest of a number of programs being offered by Internet service providers to help close the digital divide.

"We'd like to see more of this being done," he said.

"There are boatloads of studies that show that if you have got broadband at home, kids have a better chance of succeeding," he said.

Comcast is working with civic groups such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond, the Urban League and the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to spread the word.

[email protected] (804) 775-8123 ___ (c)2012 the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) Visit the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) at www.timesdispatch.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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