SIGforum.com Main Page The Lounge COMCAST making WIFI free to all, announces other initiatives during virus outbreak
Main Page The Lounge COMCAST making WIFI free to all, announces other initiatives during virus outbreakGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
| Lead slingin' Parrot Head  |
I thought this might be a resource for some forum members during the national emergency. I'm not a fan of COMCAST or creating an account with them, but I'm going to create an account and see how it works. Whether it works or not, I appreciate companies like COMCAST pitching in and helping during this time. COMCAST making WIFI free to all, announces other initiatives during virus outbreak By Lindsey Grewe | Posted: Mon 1:05 PM, Mar 16, 2020 PHILADELPHIA (KKTV) - For the next 60 days, Comcast is waiving late fees and offering additional initiatives to help Americans stay connected to the internet during the coronavirus outbreak. Comcast released a list of new policies Monday to "help ensure people stay connected to the internet as more schools suspend classes and companies encourage employees to work from home due to COVID-19." They are as followed: - 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 data plans: 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: 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 IE 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: 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, visit comcast.com/covid19. | ||
|
| Member |
Apparently our local provider, Spectrum, is also offering something similar to help students connect for online classes. Admirable!! _________________________________________________ "Once abolish the God, and the Government becomes the God." --- G.K. Chesterton | |||
|
The Unmanned Writer |
As much as we may disparage a certain sector of the industries, things life this is a hella lot better than if the goobermint tried to do it - at tax payers 300% expense. Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. "If dogs don't go to Heaven, I want to go where they go" Will Rogers The definition of the words we used, carry a meaning of their own... | |||
|
Unflappable Enginerd |
Just to clarify what they're REALLY doing here. They are allowing non-customers to logon to existing wifi routers at their customers locations. These are not corporate setup and operated wifi hot-spots. In other words, people who use their internet service and have wifi routers installed at their businesses, and some homes too, will have their bandwidth shared with people they wont know are using it. Perhaps they handle the data used through that account differently, I would hope. I looked at the map and one of my customers who has a "Business Class" account is listed as available for free access. So, you see, if they didn't remove the data-plan caps, these customers could potentially be getting screwed by unknown entities using a service they didn't pay for. I work from home and have their "Business Class" service, but I disabled wifi "free availability" service on my router. They re-flashed firmware in my router over a year ago and added this xfinitywifi node as part of their "terms of service". Best I can tell they did this on their home service routers as well. This was all part of the service they expanded into when they started selling cell phone services. This is how they offer cell and other internet services to people, by using other previously deployed "Business Class" nodes... As a Comcast "Business Class customer" you're providing THEM with "free" infrastructure. __________________________________ NRA Benefactor I lost all my weapons in a boating, umm, accident. http://www.aufamily.com/forums/ | |||
|
| Lead slingin' Parrot Head |
When I checked their map of WIFI Hot Spots I noticed several locations that were in residential areas, which puzzled me. In at least one case, the Hot Spot listed was located at a private apartment complex that offers "free" WIFI in its Club House as a benefit to residents, whose use is included in their rent payments...so your explanation makes perfect sense. While I still appreciate the gesture by COMCAST during this emergency, I can certainly see how they might be inconveniencing their customers by implementing this plan, Thanks for taking the time to add your input. Edited: to retract my statement (with apologies) based on the company FAQ link provided. At least COMCAST acknowledges and explains this feature to their customers. | |||
|
Itchy was taken |
Here is the xFinity FAQ regarding the hotspots. The feature can be disabled. https://www.xfinity.com/suppor...finity-wifi-hotspots Disclaimer - Comcast employee. _________________ This space left intentionally blank. | |||
|
| Lead slingin' Parrot Head |
I've retracted my comment, and both apologize and thank you for the info. | |||
|
| Itchy was taken |
Not required, but thanks. Just trying to clarify something a whole lot of people think. _________________ This space left intentionally blank. | |||
|
Nullus Anxietas |
1. Business Class plans have no data caps. 2. The data consumed by public WiFi hotspot use is not counted against the data budget of customers who are metered.This message has been edited. Last edited by: ensigmatic, "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher | |||
|
Member |
Thanks. "Please allow up to 24 hours for this change to take effect" Harshest Dream, Reality | |||
|
| Powered by Social Strata |
 | Please Wait. Your request is being processed... |
|
SIGforum.com Main Page The Lounge COMCAST making WIFI free to all, announces other initiatives during virus outbreak
Main Page The Lounge COMCAST making WIFI free to all, announces other initiatives during virus outbreak© SIGforum 2024