Low-income city residents get Internet access

Listen to this article

Three years ago, representatives from Comcast visited Maryland to celebrate the national launch of its Internet Essentials program.

Now they have 29,700 low-income Maryland residents enrolled in the program, which allows families to get Comcast broadband Internet for less than $10 a month and gives them the opportunity to buy a computer for about $150.

Nationwide, the program has reached about 1.4 million people so far.

“If you’re starting to sign up that number of people, you’re beginning to make a difference,” said David L. Cohen, Comcast’s executive vice president.

But the company wants that number to keep growing. So Monday, representatives from Comcast and Baltimore‘s tech community gathered with area officials to launch Internet Essentials’ fourth year, in hopes that more residents will take advantage of the program.

They gathered at the Digital Harbor Foundation’s Tech Center in Federal Hill, where several students demonstrated the technology projects they had created there. Comcast has supported the Digital Harbor Foundation since the spring and provides Internet to the tech center.

“In my opinion, we don’t have as much of an achievement gap as we do an opportunity gap in this country,” said Andrew Coy, executive director of Digital Harbor Foundation. “Not having access to (Internet) is like taking away pens and papers and books when (students) leave school and saying ‘see you tomorrow.’”

The Internet Essentials monthly price is a major discount over the typical Comcast Internet rates. Even the most basic broadband connection is typically $20 per month. To qualify for Internet Essentials, families must have at least one child eligible for free or reduced-cost lunches through the National School Lunch Program.

“I’m still amazed at the number of people who are eligible for the program who still don’t know about it,” said Mike Brenner, co-founder and CEO of Betamore, a business incubator located feet from the DHF tech center.

Digital Harbor High School’s principal Brian Eyer said that many students there still lack Internet access at home and have to stay after school to complete online assignments.

At Monday’s program, Comcast gave free laptops to about 55 attending students from Liberty Elementary School and Digital Harbor High School, as well as one year of free Internet access for those who did not already have it. The company also announced that families who apply before Sept. 30 for Internet Essentials will get six months free.

But the bulk of the event did not center as much on this particular offer as it did on the general importance of access to technology for families of all income levels.

“Internet and the language to build on that Internet is the language of our industry,” said Brenner. “If you lack those skills it’s almost comparable to being illiterate in our society today.”