OREANDA-NEWS. August 05, 2016. With an aspirational goal of 200,000 new broadband adoptions among
low-income households in
California over the next two years,
Frontier
Communications (NASDAQ:FTR) is awarding
\\$3 million in grants to
community-based organizations that work toward closing the state's
digital divide. In addition, Frontier is donating 50,000 laptops to be
distributed by those organizations to participating low-income
households.
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According to the 2016
Annual Survey on Home Broadband Adoption in California conducted by
the Field Research Corporation, 16 percent of California households
still do not have access to high-speed Internet, which means they are
economically disadvantaged when it comes to doing homework, applying for
college and jobs, and connecting to health, education, and civic
information.
"These grants align with Frontier's mission to serve our California
communities and affirm our commitment to expand high-speed connectivity
where currently unavailable," said
Melinda White, West Region President
of Frontier Communications.
"Frontier's public benefits contributions to California are exemplary of
the way companies can help close the digital divide and provide to all
residents the 21st Century civil right of high-speed Internet
access," said
Sunne Wright McPeak, President and CEO of the California
Emerging Technology Fund.
"Access to affordable high-speed Internet is an economic and social
imperative," said Commissioner
Catherine J.K. Sandoval of the California
Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). "I applaud the efforts by Frontier
and CETF to work with local agencies to take real steps to increase
access to affordable Internet service and help Californians narrow the
digital divide."
According to the 2016
Field Poll, the California groups reporting
the lowest levels of home broadband connectivity, including those using
a smartphone only, are: adults who have not graduated from high school,
63%; seniors age 65 or older, 56%; adults who identify having a
disability, 71%; Spanish-speaking Latinos, 69%; and households whose
total annual income is less than \\$20,000, 68%.
In an effort to shrink the digital divide, Frontier has introduced Frontier
Affordable Broadband for qualified low-income households located
within its California territory. Offering speeds as fast as 7Mbps/1Mbps
for just \\$13.99 per month, the service is available in a package with
landline telephone to customers who qualify for the California LifeLine
program. Existing Frontier California LifeLine landline customers are
eligible to add Frontier Affordable Broadband to their service.
In the first set of grants, 12 California nonprofits have been tasked to
connect 25,000 low-income households to broadband by 2018. To achieve
that goal, the organizations will work to build awareness and adoption
of the Frontier Affordable Broadband offering.
The organizations awarded grants include: The
Amador Tuolumne Community Agency; The
American GI Forum Education Foundation; California
Foundation for Independent Living Centers; California
State University, Fresno Foundation; Computers
for Families Santa Barbara-Partners in Education; The
CSU Chico Research Foundation; Human-I-T;
McFarland
Unified School District; National
Asian American Coalition; Southeast
Community Development Corporation; The
Stride Center; United
Ways of California.
Administering the grants is the California
Emerging Technology Fund (CETF), a public benefit foundation
directed by the California Public Utilities Commission to close the
digital divide. Since 2007, CETF has worked to close the home broadband
gap in California from 45 percent in 2008 to 16 percent in 2016 by
focusing on three primary barriers to high-speed Internet adoption:
cost; relevance; and digital literacy.
About Frontier Communications
Frontier
Communications Corporation, a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, is a
leader in providing communications services to urban, suburban and rural
communities in 29 states. Frontier offers a variety of services to
residential customers over its fiber-optic and copper networks,
including video,
high-speed
internet, advanced
voice and Frontier
Secure digital protection solutions. Frontier
Business Edge offers communications solutions to small, medium and
enterprise businesses. Frontier's approximately 29,000 employees are
based entirely in the United States. More information about Frontier is
available at www.frontier.com.
About the California Emerging Technology Fund
Established in 2007 by the California Public Utilities Commission as a
result of two corporate mergers, CETF's mission is to close the Digital
Divide. CETF is on target to reach 98% of all California residences with
broadband infrastructure and to achieve 80% home adoption by 2017. This
statewide goal can only be accomplished if the following hard-to-reach
target communities achieve at least a 70% adoption rate: low-income
populations, Latino households, rural communities, and people with
disabilities. For more information, please visit internetforallnow.org
and www.cetfund.org.
Available for Interviews
Sunne
Wright McPeak
, President and CEO, California Emerging Technology Fund
Melinda
M. White
, President of Frontier Communications West Region
Representatives
of 12 community-based organizations receiving Frontier grants
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