Comcast rolled out its Internet Essentials program nationwide recently, offering low-income families in its service territory $10/month Internet connections and access to $150 computers.

Any family with at least one child who qualifies for the free lunch program at public schools can subscribe to a low-speed (1.5Mbps) Comcast Internet connection for $9.95 a month. Comcast guarantees that it won’t raise the price and offers the plan without equipment rental or activation fees. Subscribers also cannot have “an overdue Comcast bill or unreturned equipment,” and they can’t have had Comcast Internet in the last 90 days.

Comcast has agreed to sign up families to the program for at least three years, and it also promises to provide free Internet and computer training to those who need it. Obviously, this will be Windows only.

Internet Essentials has been rolled out in cities around the country throughout the year—it came to Chicago back in May—but the DC launch today was used to “officially” launch the national program. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was on hand to praise Comcast for helping overcome the “digital divide.”

“Students increasingly need to go online to complete their homework assignments,” he said. “But one-third of all students and a majority of low-income children can’t. It’s not because there aren’t countless kids trying to do their very best. We heard about a high school girl in Florida who does her homework in the parking lot of the local library each night, because the library’s wifi hot spot is the only way she can get online.”

Every student in the US needs to be “digitally literate,” Genachowski said, because it’s their “ticket to a new job.”

What kind of job, you ask? “I was recently in Indiana to announce the creation of 100,000 new jobs at customer service centers. These workers aren’t just talking on the phone any more. They are processing transactions; accessing records and information; e-mailing, live text chatting, and managing accounts. These activities don’t require advanced degrees, but they do require broadband and digital literacy.”

This isn’t exactly “you can do anything you can dream!” rhetoric, but perhaps it’s fitting for the Age of Recession. Still, Genachowski is certainly right to note that even entry-level jobs increasingly require at leastsome familiarity with computers and the Internet, and that job openings and applications are increasingly available online.

Though Comcast no doubt loves children and cares deeply about the digital divide, its Internet Essentials program was also a part of the conditions under which it was allowed to buy NBC earlier this year. The company pledged to reach 2.5 million low income households with high speed Internet for less than $10 a month, and to sell some sort of computer for $150 or less.

If Comcast were smart, they would deploy a decent Linux distribution instead and still offer 1-hour of free training. In doing so, the customers would not have to worry about the being infected with malware. Yes, Windows 7 is capable of being infected and so will Windows 8, when it rolls down the hill.

For an alternative point of view, the launch isn’t exactly new, and it was a provision of the NBC/Comcast merger. Nevertheless, it has gotten more attention than usual in the past day or two. Here’s an alternative viewpoint, heavily biased against Comcast but still worth reading: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Highlights-10-Broadband-in-DC-116216

From the FAQ:

“What type of computer is included with Internet Essentials and what kind of software does it have?

Internet Essentials participants have the opportunity to purchase a netbook-style laptop computer. This computer supports wired and Wi-Fi Internet connectivity. Every computer shipped includes Windows 7 Starter operating system and Internet browser software. Additional productivity software may be included when available.”

http://www.internetessentials.com/faq/index.html

What ever you do, DO NOT use the Constant Guard software, use ESET NOD32 instead: http://www.eset.com/us/home/products/smart-security/netbooks

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 at 18:47 by dsmith and is filed under $200 computer, Comcast, ISP, Linux, Malware, Netbook, Wi-Fi, Windows 7, Windows 8, Xfinity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.