Episode 1383
The Affordable Connectivity Program and How to make sure you get the best Wifi at home
Eric G starts out by sitting down with Rebecca Brown from Comcast about the national Afforable Connectivity Program. This program is for lower income people to have access to the internet. They discuss how this program works and how you sign up. Then Eric G dives into his tips to make sure you have wifi all around from inside to outside your home. Plus other smart home tips. All this and MORE in this episode of Around the House Show.
For more information on this program: https://www.affordableconnectivity.gov/
If you are a Comcast Xfinity Customer: https://www.xfinity.com/learn/internet-service/acp
Please check with your internet provider for more information.
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Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
[00:00:20] Eric Goranson: Especially if you've got kids going back to school or you're gonna be working from home, what are the things that you need to get that working? Great. And then we'll start adding. To all that and more coming up on around the house, make sure you check us out on Facebook, around the house show and around the house nation, which is our closed group.
[:[00:00:55] Intro: when it comes to remodeling and
[:[00:00:58] Eric Goranson: There
[:[00:01:00] Eric Goranson: but we've got you covered.
[:[00:01:05] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to around the house with Eric G and Caroline B, where we talk home improvement and everything around the home every single week. Well, Caroline's out help on a contract right now at her house. So she'll be back here in a little bit, but we've.
[:[00:01:23] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Well, thank you, Eric. I'm so excited to be here this
[:[00:01:48] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Eric. Yes, it's so true. And it is happening right. Universally. I think one critical lesson from the pandemic was just the importance of a reliable home internet connection. You know, schools [00:02:00] closed, everyone's starting to work from home and the internet became sort of that soul means for connecting. Um, but not everyone has equal access to the internet, as we know.
[:[00:02:40] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: And it is a 14.2 federal program that supports those eligible income constrained households that might be struggling to afford monthly internet service. And it provides them with a monthly subsidy. So basically a credit and eligible households could receive up to $30 a. Towards their [00:03:00] internet and or mobile service.
[:[00:03:08] Eric Goranson: Wow. That's serious money when you're talking a month to help pay for that.
[:[00:03:22] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: And so much
[:[00:03:37] Eric Goranson: I think. That snow day for kids is now gonna be the school from home day for kids, not the go out and play in the snow day, which I know I'm ruining a whole bunch of winners for kids by saying that. But I think that that has changed our world in education. That I think that that day of, oh, I don't know if it's safe to get kids to school today because of weather or whatever else.
[:[00:04:04] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Exactly. I think you're absolutely right. And, uh, I have three kiddos in school too. And I'm gonna tell them, just block that part out. It's okay. Snow days. Yeah. Snow days may or may not still happen, but yes, we do have the ability to stay connected with a snow day with other, um, weather.
[:[00:04:44] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Um, Then I know at Comcast through our internet essentials program, you know, that we've had for over a decade. Now we also try to address some of those other adoption barriers, like the device access or that digital skills training. Um, that's cool, but it's just, [00:05:00] it's important. And I think there's, you know, people that need to be aware of programs like this that exist and how they might take advantage and, and how do they qualify?
[:[00:05:22] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Yes. Great question. So households can qualify in a variety of ways and they only have to meet one of the criteria.
[:[00:06:10] Eric Goranson: So, as long as you check one of those boxes, you're in,
[:[00:06:35] Eric Goranson: I know there's a lot of people listening that have different, you know, providers across the country. Yep. You know, maybe Comcast, Xfinity, not in their neighborhood, but Cox or somebody else is you guys used to have that, uh, or still have that internet essentials program. How does this work with that?
[:[00:06:52] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Um, I will tell you about that. Um, thank you, Eric. And I'll also provide that you're right to the point like ACP, [00:07:00] um, is available and can be applied to any sort of provider that's participating in the program. So yes, Comcast is, is participating, but there are several others and you can apply this benefit to whoever's available in your area.
[:[00:07:35] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Like we knew it existed. I think the pandemic shown and even brighter light, um, on that, on that component, but it is our low cost home internet connection for under $10 a month that provides. High speed, internet access. It includes a wifi router, no equipment charges. Wow. With that, um, no contract that you have to sign.
[:[00:08:19] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Um, but internet essentials, 9 95 a month, that's below the $30 ACP benefit. So essentially households that qualified could get it for free, which is super exciting and such a benefit.
[:[00:08:40] Eric Goranson: What else can I do with this ACP funding? Can it be used for anything else? Right,
[:[00:09:02] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: And so the benefit. Is applied first to internet and then any, um, credit remaining would apply to a cell.
[:[00:09:21] Eric Goranson: We'll be right back with Rebecca Brown, from Comcast and talking about affordable connectivity with the internet. Just as soon as around the house returns, then we'll start talking to some smart home
[:[00:09:58] Eric Goranson: What's up. This is stick hand [00:10:00] satchel.
[:[00:10:02] Eric Goranson: listening to around the house
[:[00:10:09] Intro: too.
[:[00:10:28] Eric Goranson: And don't forget. Our closed group, which is over on Facebook, which is around the house nation. Love to see you join over there, where you can share up your project in a nice safe environment. Now let's get back to Rebecca brand. This is great. And there's so many boxes you can check to be able to get into this program, which is great.
[:[00:10:51] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Um, it is a two step process because, because it is a government program, um, they do have to go to that ACP benefit.org [00:11:00] website, or there is a mail-in application. So if they can't get online, um, they can also mail in the application, but it's, um, It's a process where they go and apply.
[:[00:11:20] Eric Goranson: so nine months to get my IRS question asked. No, no
[:[00:11:34] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: And I would say detailed information. I mean, don't go by like a nickname or something else you might use, but sort of your, your ID on your birth certificate or identification, um, use that information, but. You go through that process, you get that national verifier ID, and then you go to the provider of your choice.
[:[00:12:15] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: And then once you get through all of that, it's just automatically applied every month. And we credit at, um, at Comcast and our Xfinity services. We credit your bill.
[:[00:12:24] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: hoop. Once you get through the hoops, it's easy and it's there. Um, and it's just, we're so proud to partner with this program and help those households that need this assistance.
[:[00:12:56] Eric Goranson: It, it,
[:[00:13:18] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: So hopefully, you know, that's for several years and we'll see how that continues. Um, but it's about, you know, these public private partnerships as well, and all of us, the entire community kind of working together because while internet is important in the home, um, The adoption, there are other barriers to adoption as well.
[:[00:13:58] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: So it's [00:14:00] truly continuing to tackle and look at it holistically and, and all of these barriers. Um, But then also looking at social broader issues too, like housing and security, like literacy. And so I know at Comcast, um, as we continue to hear from our partners about the barriers what's happening, I mean, we know we're committed to creating equitable pathways, um, in the future.
[:[00:14:52] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: So project up, up the unlimited possibilities. Um, but we are yes. Working with local [00:15:00] partners across the country. And with all of our companies like NBC universal and sky as well to focus in on this work and it's gonna have to continue. And we, we need to all continue to get creative in how we work together and the programs we look to
[:[00:15:16] Eric Goranson: That's awesome. I'm seeing a lot of school districts out there that are lending out Chromebooks to kids, and they're really. There there's a lot of opportunity out there, uh, from multiple sources, but it's nice to see everybody kind of coming together to try to fix some of these issues, to make sure that, you know, we gotta get these kids in school just as a basic, right.
[:[00:15:56] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: It is. And I mean, and you think about how do you look for a job [00:16:00] nowadays, right. Typically online and a lot of jobs you have to apply online. Um, so to be able. Have that connectivity either at home or, or out in the community? I think one of our initiatives that we launched during the pandemic was our lift zone program.
[:[00:16:38] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Um, so they could come in safely and connect to this lift zone, um, wifi and, and do what they needed to do. So we have, you know, we had a goal of launching, I think a thousand of these across the country, over three years and Eric, we. Achieved that. And then some we've launched, I think over 1500 in a [00:17:00] year and a half, um, because the need is so great.
[:[00:17:14] Eric Goranson: great. You need to do thanks for coming on Rebecca. What should we, uh, let's steer people to those websites again.
[:[00:17:26] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Yes, I would say the general, um, website is ACP benefit.org. And for those of you in an Xfinity, uh, area that is xfinity.com/acp.
[:[00:17:43] Rebecca Brown-Comcast: Absolutely. Um, Eric, is it helpful if I also just share a phone number just in case someone let's let do it? Let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah. Okay. So if somebody wanted to sign up for ACP and learn more, they could also call 8 4 4 3 8 9 4 [00:18:00] 6 8
[:[00:18:04] Eric Goranson: We've even got a phone number. I love it.
[:[00:18:23] Eric Goranson: get connected.
[:[00:19:00] Intro: Hey, this is
[:[00:19:08] Intro: house with Eric G
[:[00:19:23] Eric Goranson: We've got all the answers right here for you. Well, Caroline is out on assignment. She's doing some remodeling in her house and, uh, couldn't make it into the studio today, but we have got a fun one here for the rest of these two segments. We're gonna be talking about home technology and. This is one of those things that I think we really should kind of dial back and start talking about foundations first, because that's where it all starts with smart home technology.
[:[00:20:07] Eric Goranson: You know, it's not. So what I would do is first start out right next to your router. If you could plug your laptop into it, this is what I would do. I'd hard plug into that thing. Don't go wireless and you'll hear why. And I'd run over to speed test and run a speed test on it and see how good. That router is working for you, especially if it's one supplied by your cable provider, then you can see and compare against your bill, how fast it's running.
[:[00:20:53] Eric Goranson: But what I want you to do is compare that against your bill. If it's close, then it's close and you've got a good place [00:21:00] to start. If it's not, you need to look and make sure that you don't have a problem with your computer you're using or the router, or you've got a connection problem. For me, I actually had a connection problem.
[:[00:21:35] Eric Goranson: So make sure if you have that ability to log in and see what your system's doing. So that's the first thing I want you to do, make sure you've got great internet speed, because you're gonna design everything else in your house around that. So once you get that dialed in next, you wanna make sure that you get that around the rest of your house.
[:[00:22:14] Eric Goranson: So what this does is it creates a wireless mesh across your house. So these different pods connect for my house. I have three of them. I put 'em in different corners of the house where I need it. And then what I did is that way I can get probably 90% of the house. And then for me in the studio, which is out in my garage, I knew I was gonna have some issues cuz getting through exterior walls, especially with an old house like mine, where I've got foil faced insulation, some other challenges like that.
[:[00:23:08] Eric Goranson: It's inexpensive and you're gonna have something for me. I wanted to make sure I had it. So that way I was good to go for whatever I was doing, because as we all know, speeds kept getting. Better and better and better. And with my security system that is wireless, I wanted to make sure, well some's wireless.
[:[00:23:47] Eric Goranson: So really this gets you to place where you can have out in front of the house. You pull in. You can control things within your house without getting out of the car. Now, the one thing you have to make sure though, is since you've got a larger signal [00:24:00] outside your house, I wanna make sure you've got the good security protections to get into it.
[:[00:24:30] Eric Goranson: So you can have, you know, the hashtags and the dollar signs. And the pounds and all that, whatever you want to call it, that way you get all those different things through there. Cuz you know, that star in the end symbol can be great in a password that way you've got people not breaking into your system that maybe pull out front and do it.
[:[00:25:13] Eric Goranson: That's gonna save you money, whatever it is you wanna make sure you've got that connectivity. All around the house and that way you can get around some of those things, because you know, we've maybe got that big fireplace that's in the middle of the house or that chimney that's great at stop on those signals.
[:[00:25:47] Eric Goranson: Smart things can be really cool. Cuz I could sit there and use that as how I communicate. For instance in my house, I can sit there with smart things and buy things that are smart things [00:26:00] compatible that way. I don't have to have a dozen apps on my phone to control my not so smart system. And that way, if I make it all compatible, I can run it.
[:[00:26:27] Eric Goranson: I make sure my garage lights are off. I can make sure all the lights around, around my house the way I want it every single time. By doing that, it can make it really easy. How many times do you forget to turn the lights on or lights off out front? Maybe your porch lights or your garage lights or your back porch lights.
[:[00:27:12] Eric Goranson: You don't have to worry about that. When you're traveling or going on a vacation or anything like that, those are little things you can do. That'll save you money as well as you can set up a bunch of different stuff like smart garage door openers, you know, you can do that, set that up that way, which is smart because.
[:[00:27:55] Eric Goranson: Those are big ones that you can do. And, uh, it'll save you a [00:28:00] ton of headaches as well as making sure that you're safe around the outside. Having those lights on when you come home at night, maybe you've been out to for the evening, went out to dinner and you're good to go. And that is stuff. That's gonna make it easier for you and a lot safer.
[:[00:28:28] Eric Goranson: Is around the house returns.
[:[00:29:00] Intro: man, drunk. It's the end of the show now drinking down people and it's time to
[:[00:29:27] Eric Goranson: If you have any questions for around the house, you can make sure and hit us over to around the house. online.com. And for social media, we've got around the house show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and then of course Caroline's personal pages and mine as well. And I think we're on everything, but TikTok out there including LinkedIn.
[:[00:30:01] Eric Goranson: What I really like to see is making sure that we talked about like, in the last segment of getting that speed up there and getting that coverage without the house, because you're starting to see, like in my house, for instance, I don't need to have coax cable. I really don't. So all of my new boxes, except for the one for my cable boxes run over stream.
[:[00:30:45] Eric Goranson: So these are things that can really make things a little bit easier. And I really like to be able to do that, cuz if I don't have to run cable with it and I can get it working over a, over a Bluetooth or a, or an internet connection, like this is Internet's great, it works well. [00:31:00] I don't have to mess with it.
[:[00:31:16] Eric Goranson: And it's really handy, to be honest, to be able to throw that party outside. If you don't have a place, you can bring the TV outside, plug it in. And if you've got a strong enough internet connect, That can work really well. And you're solid at that point. And, uh, having that connectivity is gonna be really key.
[:[00:31:48] Eric Goranson: They had a big hole in their line that cost them five grand. To dig down in the driveway to get in there, get it fixed and, uh, patch it up and, uh, [00:32:00] repave that section there. So it gets really expensive. Quick. If you put one of those water meters. You know, emergency detectors on there. They're really cool.
[:[00:32:29] Eric Goranson: Well, it's expensive water, even though we get a ton of rain, we pay for our drinking water here. If you're on a, well, maybe it's not that big a deal, but at the same point, if it's going under a road or landscaping, you sure don't want to have that where it's gonna be causing damage to any of that. And it's just better not to drain the well out and put it into your yard unless you're trying to.
[:[00:33:11] Eric Goranson: Cool my house and everything else for all of you using electrical stuff. So that's a key right there. If you can pull that. You'll be pretty good saving money and keeping the house a little bit safer. The other thing is, is I've actually got one of those Google. Um, they're one of the new smoke detectors and I love this thing because I could put it in my house and it does carbon monoxide and it does smoke.
[:[00:33:54] Eric Goranson: So if I'm traveling or I'm at work or I'm out doing something, it's telling me, there's a problem before the problem gets to be [00:34:00] really big. And that can save you a ton of time when it comes to response to a fire and emergency inside your home. And then it's very easy to tap it and silence it, or be able to do that through the app in case, you know, maybe you're cooking a steak on the grill.
[:[00:34:30] Eric Goranson: Cuz when I got it here about a year ago, that's all that was on the marketplace. That was really good. Now kitty has one that's come out, which is a hardwired smoke and carbon monoxide alarm with indoor air quality monitor. That's a three in one that uses a smart with an app. I have not played with this one cuz it's new out, but I do like that.
[:[00:35:07] Eric Goranson: Well. That's a good thing as well. Now here's one thing that I noticed, and this is pretty funny and I gotta do a little more research on it. And my wife, Julie, really noticed this. She has been having problems in my house when she's baking, getting the dough to rise. So you think, whoa, what's the issue with that?
[:[00:36:00] Eric Goranson: Well, guess what? When she gets the yeast rising in the dough, I think what's happening is that is starting to fall out and then it's killing the east in the dough. So we're gonna have to do some experimenting here. I wanna see if I turn that system off for a day, if we can do that differently. So stay tuned.
[:[00:36:38] Eric Goranson: I think it's my air scrubber that might be doing a little bit too much. And that's one of those things that, uh, I'm slightly concerned about. I wanna make sure that, uh, one we're healthy and two, that if we're gonna be taken on a project like that, With bacon. I don't wanna get in the way way of my wife's baking that's for darn sure.
[:[00:37:15] Eric Goranson: I have been using those in my bathroom and a couple other places out there that actually take the light bulbs instead of having the, the fixture with the L E D built inside. And I tell you what I have got some Phillips ones that are in my bathroom right now that, uh, are only lasting months. And, uh, we're gonna test it out here with a different brand.
[:[00:38:01] Eric Goranson: To fire off there's that starting circuit in there. And I think maybe that BA base might be a little bit too small to really be able to get it. And I'm having some serious reliability issues. It's not the lighting. I know the lighting is fine. I know the, uh, I've had different dimmers on it and I know that's not an issue there.
[:[00:38:40] Eric Goranson: Uh, I've got some new ones coming, but I'll tell you what, uh, having some serious light bulb issues with some of these LEDs. It's either that, uh, they're making 'em too cheap or that little tiny mini bases too small, but either way, got some issues. I'll give a report back and see if I can find a brand that's gonna work a little bit better.
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