Tapping Internet Discounts For Lower-Income Households

Comcast’s entry-level internet service was not fast enough for Lia Moniz’s two schoolkids, so she upgraded to a faster connection that costs her more than $80 a month. A new Comcast offer, Internet Essentials Plus (IEP), has the potential to make Moniz’s internet free. IEP has the most bang for the buck. It offers speeds up to 100 megabits per second downstream and 10 megabits up, with free cable modem and Wi-Fi hot spot rental, for $29.95 a month. This is covered by the $30 Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) benefit, so on the bottom line, it’s free. Even if you’re an existing Comcast internet customer. Even, in some cases, if you owe Comcast money on previous bills. However, it's problematic to sign up for ACP and IEP. When we tried to sign up, it was complicated and intimidating, but with a little trial and error, and about two hours, we qualified for ACP. Qualifying for Comcast’s IEP was worse. We were informed twice—erroneously—first by email and then by a Comcast help desk agent, that existing Comcast customers didn’t qualify. We corrected the error and navigated even more misinformation. Then we learned that while new Comcast customers could apply for IEP online, existing customers had to wait 48 hours and then call Comcast in person to enroll. In the end, though, we succeeded. The Comcast bill went from $64.87 a month to $0.

[David Isenberg is head of the advisory committee to FalmouthNet, a nonprofit that aims to bring a locally controlled fiber-optic internet network to Falmouth]