Comcast said it has expanded its Internet Essentials program to include federal Pell Grant recipients and pledged to invest $15 million in free internet service and equipment, including 25,000 laptop computers, to low income students, seniors, veterans and adults. 

The Philadelphia-based MSO launched Internet Essentials in 2011, and so far the program, which targets low-income families, has helped more than 10 million people connect to broadband at home. The expansion is part of Comcast’s Project UP, the company’s $1 billion initiative to reach 50 million people with the tools, resources and skills needed for success in the digital world.

As the pandemic has highlighted the need for reliable broadband connections to the home, Comcast said research shows how lower income families are faced with unique adoption challenges such as housing insecurity, literacy challenges, language barriers, and broadband relevancy issues. Comcast said its digital equity efforts have been designed to address as many of these challenges as possible, including offering low-cost broadband Internet at home; the option to purchase a heavily subsidized, affordable computer; access to free WiFi in community centers nationwide; and numerous options to acquire the digital skills necessary to navigate distance learning and use the internet.

The 25,000 laptops will be donated to low-income students, seniors, veterans and adults in cities nationwide, such as Houston, Texas; Sacramento, California; Seattle; Philadelphia; Hartford, Connecticut; Baltimore; Memphis, Tennessee; Atlanta; Detroit; Chicago; Jacksonville, Florida; Minneapolis; Oakland; Boston; Pittsburgh; and Grand Rapids, Michigan.

“Digital equity is key to success in education and economic mobility, now and into the future,” Comcast executive VP of public policy and digital equity Broderick Johnson said in a statement. “As our economic, medical, and educational systems become increasingly digital, it’s more important than ever that every American gets online. For those young people pursuing higher education, the expansion of IE eligibility to Pell Grant recipients is a real boost. Through the announcements we are making today, we will help support the development of a workforce that has the digital skills necessary to adapt to rapid shifts in a fast-evolving economy.”

Making the Internet Essentials program available to Pell Grant recipients in its service territory enables students to stay connected as they continue to pursue degrees at colleges, universities, and technical schools. The Federal Pell Grant program, established in 1965, is the largest source of federal grant aid for students pursuing a post-secondary education.

“One thing this pandemic has taught us is the necessity of digital access for all students,” Council for Opportunity in Education president Maureen Hoyler said in a statement. “By expanding eligibility to include Pell Grant recipients, Internet Essentials has taken an important step towards helping low-income college students realize their postsecondary goals.”

Comcast has announced that its subsidized ISP program Internet Essentials has now been provided to six million low-income Americans.

In addition to the benchmark, the cable company also said it will expand the program to nearly one million low-income military veterans.

Comcast said it has connected two million users to Internet Essentials just in the last year—its largest annual increase to date.

Related: Comcast Connects on New Internet Essentials Campaign

“This program has had an enormous impact on millions of families and children who now have high-speed Internet at home, many for the first time in their lives,” said David L. Cohen, senior executive VP and chief diversity officer for Comcast, in a statement. “We’re excited to extend that same opportunity to more than one million, low-income veterans. Veterans have stood up for our country, now it’s time for us to stand up for them by providing access to life-changing digital tools and resources.”

Comcast also announced that U.S. Olympic Gold Medalists Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando will join Cohen on a multi-city tour to raise awareness for the Internet Essentials program.

Washington, D.C. -- Assuring students access to broadband service outside school and their homes is essential, and added funding for high-speed access in libraries is a significant way to accomplish that goal, FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in her speech on "The Broadband Imperative and the Homework Gap" on Thursday.  

Addressing the State Education Technology Directors Association, she complimented the group for its  second "Broadband Imperative Report," just released, which focuses on "digital equity." 

"This is an issue that demands attention -- I believe your work here is a clarion call," Rosenworcel said. She characterized the organization's first Broadband Imperative report in 2012 as an incentive for the FCC to update its E-rate program which helps connect schools and libraries to broadband. 

But she pointed out that today "seven in 10 teachers assign homework that requires Internet access," putting it in the context of FCC data showing that "one in three household does not have broadband service." Rosenworcel called the sector that is not reached as a "homework gap" where students cannot fully complete school assignments. 

Her remarks never mention the role of cable TV operators in developing broadband services for audiences who can use such facilities to close the homework gap. 

She cited examples of students' creative efforts to access broadband -- from sitting in fast food restaurants or the parking lots near schools or the steps outside public libraries to use wireless broadband after school hours. 

"These kids are resilient. They are cobbling together whatever connectivity they can find to do their schoolwork," Rosenworcel said. "Their grit is impressive.  But it shouldn’t be this hard."

She cited the Library Service and Technology Act as "the only federal program exclusively for libraries." Although funds from this federal program support a range of projects for  libraries and learning, Rosenworcel suggested that "this kind of connectivity ... effort deserves support." She was particularly enthusiastic about such opportunities to "bridge the homework gap and close the cruelest part of the digital divide."

Moreover, she said, she envisioned that universal broadband access will be able to turn all students "into not just digital consumers but digital creators."