Comcast Internet Essentials for 1.3 Million More Households

Comcast has partnered with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to offer its Internet Essentials service to adults in HUD housing, whether or not they have kids. The program that offers 10mbps download speeds and WiFi equipment had previously been focused on families with children eligible for subsidized school lunches.

ArsTechnica says this will make 1.3 million more people eligible for the services. Under the program, Comcast also offers enrollees a laptop or desktop computer for under $150, and free basic computer skills training. Comcast says this is the ninth time, it has widened the scope of the program and has so far connected more than 600,000 low-income families and provided 47,000 subsidized computers.

The Internet Essentials program was initially created as part of the 2011 deal that allowed Comcast to acquire NBCUniversal. Comcast has continued the program beyond the timeframe required by that deal driven as much by its ill-starred bid to acquire Time Warner as by charitable urges.

And though the program might be imperfectly-implemented regulator-bait (with regular complaints that enrollment is cumbersome and slow), it’s still something Comcast deserves real praise for, and the expansion should give it even bigger impact.