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Comcast waiving fees, opens up free internet options in response to COVID-19 outbreak
Comcast announced this week it is offering a variety of free services, particularly for low-income customers, so people have access to the internet during the coronavirus outbreak and Washington state schools being closed into April.
That is along with free WiFi hotspots across the country (map of Xfinity WiFi hotspots is at www.xfinity.com/wifi. ) According to Comcast:
“Once at a hotspot, select the ‘xfinitywifi’ network name in the list of available hotspots and then launch a browser. Xfinity Internet customers can sign in with their username and password, and they will be automatically connected at Xfinity WiFi hotspots in the future. Non-Xfinity Internet subscribers should visit the ‘Not an Xfinity Internet Customer’ section on the sign-in page to get started. Non-customers will be able to renew their complimentary sessions every two hours.
“If you are prompted for a password or other login credentials, then you are attempting to access an Xfinity WiFi hotspot that is located in a home, not in a business or outdoor location. This hotspot is not part of the free Xfinity WiFi access program.”
If you are afraid someone is going to be tapping into your personal home hot spot, Comcast added further details to explain the program on Saturday.
“The Wi-Fi map shows all hotspots both public and private in the state. Comcast has roughly 65,000 public Wi-Fi hot spots across Washington state for non-customers to use, which are located at public places, like small businesses and in outdoor locations such as shopping districts and parks.”
The company also announced that it is pausing limits on its data plan.
In a statement, Comcast said: “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.”
The company says it also will not disconnect internet service for anyone 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.”
It’s also offering for free its Internet Essentials program, which normally costs $9.95 a month for qualifying low-income individuals who sign on as new customers.
According to Comcast: “New customers will receive 60 days of complimentary Internet Essentials service. 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.”
More details are at http://www.comcastcorporation.com/COVID-19/.
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