With more than half of all U.S. students starting the 2020- 2021 school year online due to COVID-19, Comcast announced today a new partnership program for cities, school districts, and community organizations to connect large numbers of low-income students and families to the Internet at home. Additionally, Comcast has expanded the reach of its xFi platform to put parental controls into the hands of even more parents.

The new “Internet Essentials Partnership Program” (IEPP) enables cities, schools, and nonprofits to collaborate to help fund and connect large numbers of K-12 students with broadband Internet service and devices like laptops and tablets. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IEPP has already signed up more than 70 schools across the country, which means more than 200,000 students now have the opportunity to get connected to their schools for distance learning.

Comcast continues to offer new Internet Essentials customers two months of free Internet access if they sign up before the end of 2020. Comcast also continues to forgive any back debt due so more families can apply.

• All Internet Essentials customers now have free access to Comcast’s innovative xFi platform, which enables parents to: control and manage their children’s WiFi connected devices, set safe browsing modes so children can only access age-appropriate content, and pause devices for dinner or bedtime.

• Finally, Comcast announced plans today it will convene a series of virtual national and regional summits this fall to help tackle the challenges of broadband adoption. The summits will focus on several issues including: education, broadband adoption, digital and media literacy and training, and Internet safety.

These announcements build on our recent commitments to continue to offer new customers two months of the Internet Essentials program for free through the end of 2020 and to continue to forgive any back debt due so more families can apply.

To learn more about how Comcast supports digital equity for low-income households: www.Corporate.Comcast.com/Values/ Internet-essentials www.Xfinity.com