The world is in a very interesting place in our history. Many of you are probably feeling like this mom is – overwhelmed, overprepared, and underprepared. Together we are facing life trying to stay healthy and safe and at the same time spending much more time at home working and learning. I’m grateful that we’ve been able to stay connected to our family and friends through our internet provider, Comcast. They’ve shared some information with me that is helpful for all of us as we navigate through the reality of life responding to COVID-19.
How We’re Connected with Xfinity
To give you a little glimpse into what is happening day-to-day in the ‘lil Burghers house (not that you probably aren’t doing the same), here’s how we’re relying on our internet provider while the four kids are being schooled at home:
Mom wakes up around 6:00 to start her workday and connect to her client’s VPN. Kids wake up around 8:00, do chores, then connect to their Google classroom, Mo Willems’ doodles, zoo virtual tours, and more throughout the day. Mom is in her home office but has to “drop in” on the dot to check on how things are going because Dad is at work in healthcare. And to be honest? Music or Netflix is always streaming somewhere in the house for much needed brain breaks.
Clearly, this wouldn’t work if we didn’t have reliable internet.
And we’re definitely using more internet than usual with all this activity – check out what our xFi app showed me about our activity on Wednesday (our third day of social distancing with work and school added to the day).
That’s a LOT of work and learning happening and we’re so thankful to stay connected with Xfinity.
Comcast’s response to help keep Americans connected
Comcast has announced their commitment to connecting families over the next 60 days with some important initiatives.
“During this extraordinary time, it is vital that as many Americans as possible stay connected to the internet
source: Comcast
– 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.”
Here are the policies they have implemented to stand behind this commitment:
- 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 Monday, it’s even easier for low-income 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.
- 24×7 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/
