Mediacom Communications announced this week that the discounted broadband service it provides to low-income families with K-12 students has surpassed the 1,000-mark companywide, and 238 of those connections benefit students in families throughout southwest Georgia who did not previously have access to home internet.

To extend student learning from classrooms to homes, Mediacom partners with the national non-profit, EveryoneOn, to provide affordable, high-speed internet service to students who qualify for the National School Lunch Program. Participation in the company’s educational Connect2Compete program increased each month over the past year, and students from 26 Georgia communities extending from Columbus to Valdosta use the low-cost internet connections.  

The current 2017-18 school year marks the first full year in which Mediacom has offered the program throughout its entire service area. Eligible families pay $9.95 per month to receive internet service with download speeds of up to 10 Mbps and WiFi capability. The discounted service waives equipment and installation fees.

“Technology and the internet play an increasingly critical role in the education of our youth. As a leading broadband company, Mediacom wants to close the achievement gap between students in homes with access to high-speed internet and those without it,” said Doug Frank, Mediacom’s group vice president for operations.

“We’re proud of the progress made during this initial ‘pilot’ year when we introduced a more robust service with faster internet speeds and built-in WiFi,” Frank said. “We hope to double the number of student families using Connect2Compete in this next school year, and we’re enlisting local educators and community leaders to help us give more students this opportunity to succeed in the digital age.”

"Partners like Mediacom help our continued efforts to connect all people to the internet and we are proud to work with them," said Chike Aguh, EveryoneOn's CEO. "By offering this low-cost service to students and their families, we know that we can meet our goal of connecting one million people by 2020. The 1,100 households that have been connected already show Mediacom's commitment to ending the digital divide."