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In a bid to continue helping families in need after the end of the spring school term, Comcast announced it will extend free internet service to new customers for another 60 days.
The company said Thursday that its Internet Essentials program, which was set to expire June 30, will be available to new eligible customers for two more months. The free offer will now be available through the end of 2020, with the company also waiving the requirement that customers not have a past due balance with Comcast to qualify.
“For almost a decade, Comcast has been helping to level the playing field for families in need so they can benefit from all the Internet has to offer. So, we’re happy to be able to extend this 60 days of free Internet service to new customers,” Dana Strong, President of Xfinity Consumer Services, said in a news release.
The program has helped connect many families in Philadelphia to the internet, a much-needed tool as schools went fully online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
School District of Philadelphia Superintendent William Hite welcomed the news of the Internet Essentials extension, saying in a Thursday morning press conference that he feared families who were already taking advantage of the offer would lose internet connectivity once it expired.
Without the program, Hite said, the roughly 5% of families in the district who still lack internet access could grow.
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“Comcast has been a real partner in this work the whole time. We’ve been working with them on a weekly basis to try to solve the 5% problem … So, I’m very appreciative of their continued work to help us solve many of these challenges,” Hite said.
Comcast is the parent company of NBC10.
