Internet At Home

Many smart phones can be turned into a "hotspot" for use by other devices. Depending on your provider and plan, this may be either free or a small additional charge to your service. If you are unsure about your plan, contact your provider for details.

If you know that your plan provides for hotspot use, this article by PCMagazine, How To Turn Your Phone Into a Wi-Fi Hotspot should help.
 

The Affordable Connectivity Program is a Federal Communications Commission program that helps connect families and households struggling to afford internet service. This new benefit provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward broadband service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. Eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers.

Eligible households can enroll through a participating broadband provider or directly with the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) using an online or mail-in application.

You can learn more about the benefit, including eligibility and enrollment information, by visiting www.fcc.gov/ACP, or by calling 877-384-2575.
 

Comcast recently it will be increasing speeds for the Internet Essentials program, and making the program free to new low-income customers for two months, amid the coronavirus outbreak.

In a letter, Comcast President of Consumer Services Dana Strong said that the change is for the millions of low-income Americans who don't have internet service during this uncertain time.

To sign up, applicants can simply visit www.internetessentials.com. The accessible website also includes the option to video chat with customer service agents in American Sign Language. There are also two dedicated phone numbers 1-855-846-8376 for English and 1-855-765-6995 for Spanish.
 

USAC (a funding branch of the FCC) offers a program called Lifeline which provides discounts to qualified families on their home Internet service. To find out more about this program, visit www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/lifeline-support-affordable-communications.
 

Verizon offers Verizon Lifeline plans for home phone service or broadband (internet) service. The broadband discount is limited to Fios internet service at a speed of 18 megabits per second or above.

If you qualify for the Lifeline discount service, you are eligible to receive a reduced rate on your Verizon monthly bill. To sign up for this service, please read the attached PDF (English | Spanish) or visit their website at www.verizon.com/support/residential/account/manage-account/lifeline-discount.
 

Web Filtering at Home is a topic we receive questions about from time to time. All District-owned student devices (iPads and Chromebooks) are filtered by District software and configuration to be compliant with federal laws and regulations.

Beyond that, for personally-owned devices as well as for any additional controls you may wish to put in place for all devices in your home, there are two considerations:

• Your Router which provides Wi-Fi signal to your house may be able to be configured in a variety of ways (content, screen-time, etc.) depending on the make and model of your router. Contact your home Internet provider for help in configuring your home router for this purpose.
   
• Filtering Software Subscriptions can be purchased to place additional controls on the content and sites that your home Internet connection offers to its connected devices. A Google/Bing search for "home Internet filtering solutions" will yield a large variety of commercial offerings. Additionally, this recent article from PCMagazine reviews a number of popular home filtering solutions that you may wish to explore.
  
  Your home Internet provider may also have filtering software resources and preferred filtering solutions that it offers and/or recommends...check with them as well!