Comcast Announces Comprehensive COVID-19 Response to HelpKeep Americans Connected to the Internet
On the heels of offering new, low-income Internet Essentials
customers two months of free internet and raising the speed of that program’s service to 25/3 Mbps,
Comcast today announced additional steps to help ensure people stay connected to the internet as more
schools suspend classes and companies encourage employees to work from home due to the Coronavirus.
“During this extraordinary time, it is vital that as many Americans as possible stay connected to the internet
– for education, work, and personal health reasons,” said Dave Watson, Comcast Cable Chief Executive
Officer. “Our employees also live and work in virtually every community we serve, and we all share the
same belief that it’s our Company’s responsibility to step up and help out.”
Comcast is taking steps to implement the following new policies for the next 60 days, and other important
initiatives:
• Xfinity WiFi Free For Everyone: Xfinity WiFi hotspots across the country will be available to
anyone who needs them for free – including non-Xfinity Internet subscribers. For a map of Xfinity
WiFi hotspots, visit www.xfinity.com/wifi. Once at a hotspot, consumers should select the
“xfinitywifi” network name in the list of available hotspots, and then launch a browser.
• Pausing Our Data Plan: With so many people working and educating from home, we want our
customers to access the internet without thinking about data plans. While the vast majority of our
customers do not come close to using 1TB of data in a month, we are pausing our data plans for
60 days giving all customers Unlimited data for no additional charge.
• No Disconnects or Late Fees: We will not disconnect a customer’s internet service or assess late
fees if they contact us and let us know that they can’t pay their bills during this period. Our care
teams will be available to offer flexible payment options and can help find other solutions.
• Internet Essentials Free to New Customers: As announced yesterday, it’s even easier for lowincome
families who live in a Comcast service area to sign-up for Internet Essentials, the nation’s
largest and most comprehensive broadband adoption program. New customers will receive 60 days
of complimentary Internet Essentials service, which is normally available to all qualified low-income
households for $9.95/month. Additionally, for all new and existing Internet Essentials customers,
the speed of the program’s Internet service was increased to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps
upstream. That increase will go into effect for no additional fee and it will become the new base
speed for the program going forward.
• News, Information and Educational Content on X1 and Flex: For those with school-age
students at home, we’ve created new educational collections for all grade levels in partnership with
Common Sense Media. Just say “education” into your X1 or Flex voice remote. To help keep
customers informed, we also have created a collection of the most current news and information
on Coronavirus. Just say “Coronavirus” into your X1 or Flex voice remote.
• 24x7 Network Monitoring: Underpinning all of these efforts, Comcast’s technology and engineering teams will continue to work tirelessly to support our network operations. We engineer our network capacity to handle spikes and shifts in usage patterns, and continuously test, monitor and enhance our systems and network to ensure they are ready to support customer usage. Our engineers and technicians staff our network operations centers 24/7 to ensure network performance and reliability. We are monitoring network usage and watching the load on the network both nationally and locally, and to date it is performing well.
For more information and updates from Comcast related to Coronavirus, visit:
http://www.comcastcorporation.com/COVID-19/
