For the past decade, Free State Foundation scholars have chronicled new developments regarding Comcast's "Internet Essentials" program and the progress the program has achieved in furthering more ubiquitous broadband adoption, especially for low-income persons.
As recited in a September 2021 Free State Foundation blog post, Comcast’s $700 million investment in Internet Essentials already had connected 10 million Americans to high-speed broadband and, during that time, Internet Essentials was responsible for 40% of new Internet subscriptions by low-income families with school-aged children. For details on recent expansions of the Internet Essentials program, see these FSF blogs published in 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017.
Comcast's Internet Essentials program is an undertaking that involves very substantial private investment, and as a recent NCTA post shows, by making broadband much more accessible to low income persons, it creates educational, entrepreneurial, and social opportunities that otherwise might not available.
Of course, other cable operators like Charter have programs similar to Comcast's to provide subsidies to support accessibility by low-income persons. NCTA reports that over 14 million people have been connected through the cable industry's low-cost broadband adoption programs. And similar efforts by non-cable ISPs like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and many others have connected many more.
Posts
