Additional 1.3 million U.S. households will benefit from the Internet Essentials program created by Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA). Having joined its efforts with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and at a cost of $10-per-month, they will endeavor to provide Internet service to low-income families. It does not matter whether these families have children or not which has always been a qualification to get eligibility into the program. More than 700,000 HUD recipients are already into the program which incorporates the provision of subsidized school lunches to their children.
However, there is a still a qualification that low-income adults must comply with to gain eligibility into the HUD program. Their unpaid debts to Comcast must be less than a year old. Being the ninth time that Comcast is expanding its eligibility, the low-income earners must also not be having any other Comcast Internet plans within the last 90 days.
How did the ability of more households come about?
Comcast may have embraced various complaints from the advocates for the poor who not only criticized the hardships in signing up for the Internet Essentials service but also to the fact that the program was not evenly distributed. Only those families with children in school were allowed to subscribe. Apparently, other pilot programs give access to not only to low-income seniors but also to low-income community college students something that Comcast may also have put into consideration.
Colorado was one of the first states to have Internet Essentials giving it an up to date count of 80,421 Coloradans who are eligible for the program. Another 33% are said to have signed up, and more are likely to show up by the end of the year.
Market completion for similar services
Competition in any business is familiar. Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Add to portfolio Google Fiber has established a similar program making a free for low-income earners and with gigabit speeds. Nevertheless, HUD’s Secretary Julián Castro says that they are committed to working with any other internet providers who are willing to offer similar deals. They should aim to bring the program even to those who are not within Comcast areas.
