Posted on 08/08/2011 3:21:34 AM PDT by rawhide
Comcast Corporation is partnering with several metro Atlanta school districts to educate families about a new program to offer discounted Internet access to low-income students.
Today at a morning press conference, Comcast executives along with Mayor Kasim Reed, Gov. Nathan Deal and other area leaders will announce the program, which will be offered to families of students who qualify for free or reduced-priced school lunch.
Families who qualify will receive broadband Internet for $9.95 a month with no activation fee, no modem rental and a voucher to purchase a computer for $149.99. The Atlanta launch is part of the company's larger campaign to shrink the nation's "digital divide" by addressing the barriers to Internet access, according to David Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast Corporation.
"We see the debilitating negativity that is created through the digital divide," Cohen said of the decision to offer the program.
The main reasons people don't have Internet are a mistrust or lack of understanding about how it works, the cost of a home computer and the cost of service, he said. The program could reach 374,000 students in 28 metro Atlanta school districts. The company does not expect the additional subscribers will clog the network for other users.
In Atlanta Public Schools, 78 percent of students qualify for discounted lunch. Statewide, that number is about 56 percent, according to the Georgia Department of Education. Comcast estimates 45 percent of Atlanta residents aren’t connected to broadband.
Atlanta Public Schools Chief Technology Officer Dave Williamson, said the district will be encouraging parents to take advantage of the offer.
"We believe it will be used in large part to support our educational mission by providing students with the means to stay engaged in the learning process beyond the regular class day,” he said.
Oh just swell. But the big question will continue to be, are you logged on? Who will see to it that those little brains full of mush know how to log on? Hmmmm?
Well, this news is enough to start my week being completely pissed off.
I Lost my job on 6/24. I have had my Driver’s License suspended for (hopefully only) 6 months due to medical reasons. I cannot collect unemployment because my termination of employment was medical related. My Husband has had to take on a second job to keep us afloat. My Daughters will basically have an absent father because he is trying to do the RIGHT thing.
And now these POS welfare crap-tards get more for doing less!!!!
This Country sucks!!!!
Wow.
I lived in the Portland/Vancouver metro area for 19 months, and in all that time, had only one service outage. Lasted for about 45 minutes or so. Then again, that was about ten years ago, so I can’t speak to their service these days.
Here in Germany, I use O² for internet. Not too bad....no outages in one year.
Sorry...needed to vent. I’m just so ticked off that we have worked our tails off and still sit here spinning our wheels.
This started under Ragan as a program to help poor have a phone in their homes for “emergency’s”. Then it is expanded to also give them a free cell phone to keep in touch (the commercial ironically shows a “poor” guy with a business) Now what everyone else pays 149 for, the loafers get for 9.95 so they can get internet, cable and another phone. Great win for the liberals, their base gets more free stuff, they can claim that Ragan started the program and they can say they did not raise taxes. It is those greedy companies that are charging more fees.
ping
That's some heavy-duty community organizing, there. The DOJ may have been the agency that pushed these conditions on Comcast, but we all know from whence they came.
NATIONAL SECURITY FORCE NEEDS TO COMMUNICATE, NO?
Exactly! Flash Mob invites included.
I realize that they may only pay $13 a month for rent but they are supposed to use the rest of the free money each month to raise their children.
Unreal.
What?? Are you stuck with no other carrier choices? I have AT&T for $19.95 a month.
However I am a little ticked that for two cells we have to pay $95 a month.
We cut the home phone line so that we could justify the extra expense of cell phones.
And that's just for their Mother's boyfriends! Free stuff is fun!
I’ll bet those computer are full of liberal crap ware, and full of liberal filters to be sure to bombard their Internet surfing with tons of advertising for the Democrat party and for their liberal Main Stream Media, while at the same time blocking good conservative sites like FR. I bet you no free speech on those computers.
Comcast. GE. What’s the diff?
I think that's largely local phenomenon. In my area, Comcast service is pretty good, certainly better than Centurylink DSL, which is what I had before going with Comcast.
Absolutely. He campaigned on getting *everyone* broadband internet access. This was out and out blackmail, and I have seen some complaints about comcast not changing things so much from nbc, but they made the deal to get the license to operate in more markets. I honestly don’t see where they got the better of the deal for 51% when ge still holds 49%.
Here in Maryland we abandoned Comcast for the newer faster Verizon FIOS. Comcast was terrible and had a monopoly here for many years.
And can they find the Any key?
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