Associated
- Comcast Rolls Out ten dollars Web Access for Low-Income FamiliesMashable
- Free cellular phones for the needy drawing both cheers and jeersPittsburgh Tribune-Review
- False “Mobile Phones Are Actually a Civil Right” Meme Travels Through Right-Wing MediaMedia Matters
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You may qualify for a new Internet service from Comcast, which costs just $9.95 a month if you live in an area served by Comcast and your kids receive free lunches at school through the National School Lunch Program.
Along with the demands above, to be eligible for the specially reduced solution, dubbed Web Essentials, you need to additionally not need signed up for a Comcast Web hookup throughout the last ninety days, and you also should never have a comcast that is overdue or remain hanging onto Comcast equipment that’s said to be returned.
An application sent in the mail to sign up for the service, call Comcast (1-855-846-8376) and request. Web basics is supposed to be available you start with the 2011-2012 college 12 months, it’ll be around for signups on the next three college years, also it’s guaranteed in full to stay coming in at $9.95 each month as long as the customer has a young child getting free meal at college and does not shut or break the regards to the Comcast account. Comcast can also be attempting to sell laptop computers to qualified families at a low price of $149.95, and it is providing free online training on top of that, all area of the brand new effort.
Exactly why is Comcast being so good? The explanation it is distributing is probably this:
You want to bring the energy for the Web to more pupils and families around the world.
That’s an idea that is nice. But Comcast additionally really wants to obtain the okay for NBC-Universal, and the Internet Essentials program to its merger assists that cause, as Mashable explains:
While this task appears like a goodwill initiative on area of the giant communications provider, it is a by-product regarding the Comcast-NBC merger, when the ongoing business consented to “increase broadband implementation in low income households” as you of a number of conditions to your purchase.
Only a few “low earnings households” are qualified, however. As numerous commenters have actually reported at web web sites just like the Consumerist, to qualify for Internet Essentials, you must certainly not simply be poor but in addition have actually kiddies. Low-income childless partners, singles, additionally the senior are omitted.
But residents that are poor can’t subscribe to https://www.besthookupwebsites.net/shagle-review/ inexpensive online sites may nevertheless be qualified to receive free cellular phones—free moments too.
A week ago, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review stated that two companies, Assurance Wireless and SafeLink Wireless, give free cell phones into the bad throughout almost all of the nation. Just how do these programs work? Well, have actually you ever noticed a fee that is curious “Universal provider Fund” in your cellular phone bill? The cash collected helps cover the expense of phone solution in libraries, schools, and several areas that are rural. Moreover it will pay for mobile phones and free moments for bad residents that are entitled to programs like Medicaid or meals stamps.
The free mobile phone programs have been in existence for decades, however the Tribune-Review tale kicked down a firestorm of media coverage—particularly by the right, decrying the idea that “cell phones are now actually a civil right.”
Brad Tuttle is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @bradrtuttle. You’ll be able to carry on the conversation on TIME’s Twitter web page as well as on Twitter at @TIME.
Brad Tuttle @bradrtuttle
Brad Tuttle covers business and finance that is personal TIME. He lives in Massachusetts along with his spouse and four sons, and additionally shows journalism at UMass-Amherst.
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