FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski praised Comcast’s Internet Essentials program Monday...

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski praised Comcast’s Internet Essentials program Monday as a way to help connect underserved communities to broadband. He spoke as Comcast continues to mark the start of the second year of the program, which offers low-cost broadband service to families with children eligible to receive free lunches under the National School Lunch Program, as well as affordable computers and digital literacy training. The program is set to continue through at least the 2013-2014 school year (CD May 19/11 p1) . More than 400,000 Americans -- 100,000 families -- have gotten broadband service through Internet Essentials, according to Comcast. In the Washington market, the Internet Essentials $9.95 monthly product has about 2,000 subscribers. The company agreed to start the service to get FCC okay to buy control last year of NBCUniversal. Comcast was surprised at the number of people who joined the program in its first year, said Executive Vice President David Cohen. The program helps to “level the playing field” for the families it serves, he said. Comcast has recently entered into new partnerships related to the Internet Essentials program with City Year, the Department of Labor and Connect2Compete, Cohen said. The company’s working to promote the product and “digital literacy training” with the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington, Byte Back, other groups and D.C. public libraries, Comcast said in a news release. Genachowski said his conversations with teachers, parents and students have reinforced for him the need to expand access to broadband technology. When he talked to teachers in low-income areas, they tell him that when they attempt to incorporate Internet-related projects into their curriculum, they run into difficulty when it comes to assigning their students to work on them at home. “They say, ‘half my kids don’t have broadband at home,'” Genachowski said. “'What am I supposed to do?'” During a trip to Nebraska, Genachowski heard the story of a family who had a son serving in the military overseas. They wanted to communicate with him online but were unable to because their part of the state didn’t have broadband access, but friends elsewhere were able to do so, Genachowski said. “That’s wrong.” Continuing to “move the needle” on broadband access is essential, Genachowski said.