Comcast expands high-speed access to low-income senior residents
People in Santa Clara County can participate in the company’s Internet Essentials program
SAN JOSE » Comcast on Thursday said its program bringing affordable high-speed internet to low-income residents will be expanded to Santa Clara County.
Comcast will expand its “Internet Essentials” program to senior residents in Santa Clara County and improve its internet speed in an effort to help close the digital divide for low-income Americans who cannot afford a computer or home internet, the company said.
“We face a serious divide in our valley and that follows a simple formula: those who have it and those who do not,” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo in a press conference at the Mayfair Community Center in East San Jose. “The divide has grown as the valley has grown more prosperous.”
Under the Internet Essentials plan, low-income residents receive high-speed internet for $9.95
a month and have the option of buying a computer for less than $150. The plan also includes digital literacy training online or in person. More than 4 million Americans have signed onto Internet Essentials since its launch in 2011.
Over the years, Internet Essentials has steadily expanded. Families with kids who qualified for free school lunch anywhere in the country were originally the only eligible group, but Comcast soon expanded to include families and individuals living in public housing or receiving Section 8 vouchers. In 2015, low-income senior citizens qualified in five cities, including San Francisco.
Comcast decided to expand its senior program to seven more markets, which include Santa Clara County and Fresno County.
In 2017, 87 percent of the Californians households had broadband internet connectivity at home, the highest percentage in two decades, according to a UC Berkeley study in June. But for Cali- fornians over the age of 65, the percentage of those with home internet dropped to 69 percent.
“If we do not get connected, we will lose a generation and we will be left behind,” said six-time Olympic medalist Jackie JoynerKersee, who works as Internet Essentials’ ambassador. “Internet Essentials is leveling the playing field. It is the equalizer.”
For all its Internet Essentials customers nationwide, Comcast announced it will improve its internet speeds. Its download speed will be at 15 megabits per second, three times the speed necessary to watch a high definition video, and its upload speed will be at two megabits per second.
Five local organizations which help serve minority communities in Santa Clara County partnered with Comcast to encourage seniors and public housing residents to sign up for the Internet Essentials program.
Comcast also said on Thursday it had donated to those organizations more than 100 computers and complimentary Internet Essentials coupons, which last six months.