1 in 10 eligible Philly families have joined Comcast’s low-cost Internet program

More than 9,000 Philadelphia families, or about nine percent of the 98,000 eligible households, have signed up for Comcast‘s low-cost Internet program, according to numbers from Comcast. That’s up from 5,000 households in 2012.

Launched in May 2011 after a federal mandate, Comcast’s Internet Essentials program has now reached about 300,000 households across the country, the company announced yesterday. The program offers low-cost Internet ($9.95/month) to families that have children who qualify for free or reduced lunches. Philly’s rate of signups of eligible families (nine percent) aligns with the national average, which is about 10 percent, Comcast said.

Comcast is launching a program in 20 cities, including Philadelphia, to get more signups in the next two weeks: eligible families can get free Internet Essentials for six months if they sign up in the next two weeks. Those 20 cities are becoming “Internet Essentials Learning Zones” because of their high rates of signups or, like in Philadelphia’s case, big increases in signups (Philly went from 5,000 registered families to 9,000 from 2012 to 2013.)

Instead of ending the program this June as previously scheduled, Comcast will extend the program indefinitely, said Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen on a teleconference with press.

Adoption has been slow but it’s moving: in the first five months of the program, less than 500 families signed up.

In Philadelphia, more than eight in ten Philadelphians have Internet access, according to a recent Pew report. When you count households and home Internet access (read: not smartphones), that number is lower, at least in 2012, when analysis suggested that more than half of Philly households didn’t have home Internet access.

When asked about the slow rate of adoption, Cohen offered this piece of context: “It’s taken us five years to get to 40 percent [broadband adoption] of the entire population.”

Since Internet Essentials’ launch, the Philadelphia School District has been promoting the program at every school that has students that qualify for free lunch, said district spokesman Fernando Gallard — that’s the qualifier to get access to Internet Essentials. It sends fliers home with students and hosts Comcast employees for back-to-school nights, he said. Superintendent William Hite has supported the program since he joined the District in 2012.