How Some Parents Can Get High-Speed Internet For $9.95 A Month

A Guide To Getting Affordable High-Speed Internet

As 2020 comes to a close we got the incredible news that there is a vaccine coming to the public as soon as mid-December. This could not have come at a better time as we have been told that the coming winter will be a difficult one for all of us. As the vaccine rolls out it will be in fairly limited quantities and will undoubtedly go to first responders and people who need it the most in order to save their lives. Though it’s also likely that the well connected and wealthy would get access to it in the first run. Most reports say the vast majority of us will not be able to get it until the Spring of 2021. While my family has navigated through the pandemic relatively unscathed from a financial perspective there are millions out there who are not so lucky. Many have had to close businesses, face unemployment or a reduction in hours. Depending on where you live there will be a stay at home restriction as well as school closures. In fact, on November 20th, I got an email from my kid’s school district informing me that they would be returning to online learning. My kids had only returned to in-person learning less than 45 days ago. As such, they will be doing school online while I work online as well. Internet access is more important now than perhaps ever before. Just as the internet has become more important than ever, so has saving money. Yet we face the paradox of internet access being one of the highest household bills we have.

Low-Cost Programs For Families

In addition to being a real estate agent, I teach English at a community college to foreign students. Someone at the district compiled a list of low-cost internet options for families. Come to find out many of the large internet service providers have programs for low-income families to get high-speed internet access at a low price. Below I will lay out the requirements but generally speaking, you have to be considered low income for these programs. If you are not scroll down to the bottom of this post where I give a low-cost alternative that is NOT based on income. With that said, the majority of these companies offer speeds of around 25 Mbps. While this is not “Blow your mind” speeds, it is more than adequate. In my home, we are heavy data users and our internet speed is only 30 Mbps. We stream all of our television and there were many times where both my kids would be doing school online while I was teaching my class and the tv was on in the background and we would have no issues. 25 Mbps will get the job done for most families.

Companies and Criteria

I will be focusing on Cox, Comcast, and Charter who provide internet to a large portion of the population in the United States. If you are not in the service area for any of these companies you can go to https://www.everyoneon.org/find-offers enter your zip code and it will populate any providers in your area that may offer a similar program. There are many others participating. Those include Access from AT&T, Frontier Communications, Google Fiber, human-I-T, Mediacom, and PCs For People.

First up is Cox. The program name through them is “Connect2Compete”. They offer $9.95 per month, 25/3 Mbps, no deposit, no installation fee, and in-home Wi-Fi modem rental included. In addition to this, they offer resources for discounted, refurbished laptops, and desktop computers through their association with PCs for People. To qualify for their low-cost program your family must meet the following criteria. At least one student in grades K-12 lives in the applying household. At least one person in applying household must participate in one of these government assistance programs: the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), SNAP, TANF, WIC,LIHEAP, Head Start or public housing. Applicant must have not subscribed to Connect2Compete Internet service in the last 90 days, have outstanding Cox bills or unreturned. https://www.cox.com/residential/internet/connect2compete.html

Next up is Comcast. The name of their program is “Internet Essentials from Comcast”. They offer internet for $9.95 per month (plus taxes),25/3 Mbps, no term commitment, no deposit, no installation fee, and in-home Wi-Fi modem included. For their program, you may qualify if you are eligible for public assistance programs such as the National School Lunch Program, Housing Assistance, Medicaid, SNAP, SSI, and others. Applicant must not have subscribed to Comcast’s internet service within the last 90 days, have an overdue Comcast bill or unreturned equipment from within the past year. Households with outstanding debt owed to Comcast may be eligible for Internet Essentials. They are waiving this qualification if you apply and are approved by 12/31/20. After 12/31/20, standard eligibility rules apply. In addition to this, according to their website, new customers who sign-up for Internet Essentials will receive 60 days of free internet service. If you apply and are approved by December 31, 2020! After promotion, regular rates apply. https://www.internetessentials.com/

Finally, we have Charter. The name of their program is “Spectrum Internet Assist” In their program, they offer Internet for 30 Mbps internet for $17.99 per month. They also offer a free modem, no contracts, and no data caps. In order to qualify for this offer, at least one person in the applying household must participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) of the NSLP, or receive Supplemental Security Income (for applicants age 65+ only). Spectrum Internet Assist is available exclusively to qualified households. Offer not valid for current Internet subscribers. Equipment, taxes, and fees may be extra and subject to change during and after the term; installation and additional services are extra. https://www.spectrum.com/browse/content/spectrum-internet-assist

Option For Those Who Don’t Otherwise Qualify

While not everyone else will have access to this next option they do serve a large portion of the population. For those of you that are in the Cox service area, they have an option called “Straight Up Internet”. It is essentially a pre-paid internet plan. Similar to low-cost alternative pre-paid cell phone plans (See my blog post on that below) Cox offers a plan for a flat $50 a month. That price includes all taxes and fees. They guarantee that price for at least three years. They also give a free wifi modem and free installation with the service. There is no deposit and no credit check. This service is 25 Mbps which as we previously discussed is a solid speed for a family. The data is capped at 1.25 terabytes of data per month but so are all of Cox’s other internet plans aside from their Gigablast service. https://www.cox.com/residential/special-offers/straightup-prepaid-internet.html