Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, is taking steps to close the so-called “digital divide,” announcing Tuesday that it will significantly expand its low-cost internet access program, Internet Essentials, to make just about any low-income customer eligible for the service.
The need for cheap broadband access is real, as class plays a big role in whether or not a household is broadband connected. Households living in cities with the highest poverty rates are as much as ten times more likely not to have broadband access than homes in the wealthier cities, according to U.S. Census data.
Cities near Silicon Valley and around Washington, D.C., for example, have broadband connectivity rates above 90 percent — some of the highest in the country. But in the nation’s poorest cities, like Trenton, N.J. or Flint, Michigan, as little as 40 percent of households have broadband access, leaving entire communities behind.
Comcast’s newly-expanded program may help to change that.
Internet Essentials offers 15Mbps download speeds for $9.95 per month — a full $40 lower than what that service usually costs. These customers also pay no installation fees, and no contracts or credit checks are required for service. Comcast’s only requirements are that applicants must not have any outstanding debt less than a year old owed to Comcast, and not have had service with the provider within the past six months.
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Before August 6, however, there were only five ways to qualify. Parents of children in the National School Lunch Program were eligible, as were community college students in Colorado or Illinois. Low-income veterans, seniors, and HUD housing recipients could also apply.
Starting Tuesday, customers can also prove eligibility by providing proof of benefits from nearly a dozen other federal programs, including Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, and others. This should cover just about every low-income household where Comcast offers service, the company says.
“This expansion is the culmination of an audacious goal we set eight years ago, which was to meaningfully and significantly close the digital divide for low-income Americans,” Comcast NBCUniversal chief diversity officer David Cohen said in a statement.
Internet Essentials has grown steadily since its introduction, from just 340,000 in 2012 to approximately eight million individuals across two million households this year. With this expansion, Comcast says some three million additional low-income households in its service area are now eligible.
Comcast also will continue to offer customers the choice of purchasing a refurbished Windows 10 laptop or desktop system with Microsoft Office and Norton Security Suite installed for just $150. The company said it’s either sold or donated 100,000 of these computers to needy customers.
The company’s moves follow recent political pressure to ensure broadband access is available to all Americans. Former President Barack Obama said in 2015 that “the Internet is not a luxury, it is a necessity.” The Trump Administration has made moves to increase broadband access as well, lessening the paperwork requirements to build out broadband networks in rural areas.
5G may also be a possible solution to the issue, but with the technology being so new, it’s years away from being accessible to a majority of Americans. A fix is needed now, proponents say.
“The Internet is arguably the most important technological innovation in history, and it is unacceptable that we live in a country where millions of families and individuals are missing out on this life-changing resource,” Cohen said.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.