Comprehensive COVID-19 Response to Help Keep Americans Connected

***UPDATED 04/28/2020 - Updates to initiatives***

***UPDATED 03/26/2020 - Added additional FAQs***

 

 

COVID-19 has had a tremendous impact on nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Across Comcast, NBCUniversal, and Sky, we are working hard to do everything we can to support our customers, employees, and communities during this unprecedented time.

 

 

Initiatives

• Working to Ensure 24x7 Network Health: Our engineers and technicians micro-monitor our network reliability and performance constantly, running 700k+ diagnostic speed tests most days. Since March 1, we have seen a 32% increase in upstream traffic and 18% increase in downstream traffic, still within the overall capacity of our network. Our network continues to deliver to support the capacity our customers need while they are working, learning, and connecting from home.
• Internet Essentials Free to New Customers: Through June 30, eligible new customers can sign up to receive 60 days of complimentary Internet Essentials service, which is the nation’s largest, most comprehensive internet adoption program for low-income households. We work in partnership with tens of thousands of school districts, libraries, municipalities, and nonprofit community partners to help bridge the digital divide and support digital literacy. We recently expanded Internet Essentials eligibility to include all low-income families, including seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities.
• Speed Boost for All Internet Essentials Customers: We’ve permanently increased speeds for all of our new and existing Internet Essentials customers across the country.
• Support For University Students: Xfinity is now offering eligible university students who live in our service areas and need internet service a Visa prepaid card worth about two months of internet service. No upfront fees, no installation costs.
• Free Xfinity WiFi For Everyone: Through June 30, Xfinity WiFi hotspots located in businesses and outdoor locations across the country are available to anyone who needs them for free – including non-Xfinity internet subscribers.
• Unlimited Data: While the vast majority of Xfinity customers do not come close to using 1TB of data in a month, Comcast is pausing its data plans through June 30 giving all customers unlimited data for no additional charge.
• No Disconnects or Late Fees for Xfinity Internet, Mobile, or Voice Customers: We will not disconnect a customer’s Xfinity Internet, Xfinity Mobile, or Xfinity Voice service, and we will waive late fees if they contact us and let us know that they can’t pay their bills through June 30. Sky has also committed to working with customers who might find it difficult to pay their bills and ensure they are supported appropriately. Comcast Business customers can find more information here.
• Free Calls for Sky Talk Customers: Calls to UK landlines at any time of day will be free for existing Sky Talk customers until the end of April.
• Sky Mobile Data Boost: All Sky Mobile customers will receive a 10GB data boost free of charge. Sky Mobile customers can also make calls to the NHS helpline and hospital phone numbers for free.
• Virtual Tools for Businesses: Comcast Business is supporting customers as they begin to run their businesses from home, providing free trials of apps and services including virtual project management, business text messaging, and collaboration tools that will help them stay productive and secure.
• Cybersecurity Protection: With the influx in COVID-19-related cybersecurity schemes, our team of security experts continue to work 24/7 to monitor our network using a mix of highly sophisticated technologies, threat intelligence, and proprietary AI-powered software, which helps us to detect and block hundreds of thousands of cyber events every second.
• Increasing Access to News & Information: Our NBC and Sky news teams are working around the clock to keep the world informed and we’re bringing that news and information to more people than ever.
• Providing Free Educational Resources: In partnership with Common Sense Media, we’ve curated thousands of hours of free educational programming into an education destination for Xfinity video customers to support remote learning for
  kids K-12.
• Delivering More Entertainment: We are bringing great entertainment home to consumers in new ways – offering movies on demand on the same day as their theatrical releases and making more free content available to X1 video customers. Simply say "Free" into your Xfinity Voice Remote.
• Supporting Our People: We have committed $500 million to support our employees where operations have been closed or impacted, made work from home options as broadly available as possible, and enhanced safety measures for customer-facing employees.

 

For an current overview of everything we are doing for our Xfinity customers, click here.

 

Our hearts go out to all people and families impacted by this virus. Please let us know if you have any questions related to these efforts here. 

 

 

Open Hotspots Frequently Asked Questions

What hotspots are included?
Xfinity WiFi hotspots located both indoors and outdoors in places like shopping districts, parks, businesses, and train stations will be opened. Please note that hotspots located in customers’ homes will not be opened to the public.

If users do not see the Accept & Connect button and are instead asked to sign in using their Xfinity ID and/or password, they may be attempting to access an Xfinity WiFi Home hotspot. Exact hotspot locations can be found at xfinity.com/wifi/#find-a-hotspot or using the Xfinity WiFi app.

Does the free access apply to both customers and non-customers?
Yes, anyone in proximity to an Xfinity WiFi hotspot can access them.

How does someone connect to the Xfinity WiFi hotspot?

1. Visit xfinity.com/wifi to see a map of Xfinity WiFi hotspots. Open hotspots, both indoor and outdoor, will be displayed on the map in a light green color.
2. Once at a hotspot, customers and non-customers should select xfinitywifi from the list of available WiFi networks, and then launch a browser.
3. Xfinity Internet customers can sign in using their Xfinity ID and password to be automatically connected to Xfinity WiFi hotspots in the future.
4. Non-Xfinity Internet customers can connect by clicking the Accept & Connect button. Non-Xfinity customers will be able to renew their complimentary sessions every two hours.

 

Additional Frequently Asked Questions

How can I reach Xfinity for help with my services?

Xfinity help is always available on your smartphone, in X1, and online. For certain issues, you can even file a report online.

 

To protect the health and safety of our customers and employees, we have temporarily reduced the services available in stores to essential services and are limiting the in-home services provided by our technicians. We are also transitioning many of our call center representatives to work from home.

 

For now, we recommend managing your services, paying your bill, troubleshooting, or receiving support by using:

• Xfinity My Account app: for support, including to pay your bill, change your WiFi name and password, check for service outages, explore your TV channel lineup or troubleshoot your Xfinity equipment.
• Xfinity Assistant: available for chat in the My Account app, Facebook Messenger (through the Xfinity Facebook page) and the xFi app, to answer a range of questions, such as how to troubleshoot.
• Xfinity Mobile app: manage your Xfinity Mobile account, view your data usage, switch your data to Unlimited or By the Gig shared data, view and pay your bill, track your order.
• X1 Voice Remote: say "Help" into your X1 Voice Remote for help and support, including troubleshooting.
• Xfinity xFi app: manage all of the devices on your network, get alerts when new devices connect, run health checks for your internet service.
• Xfinity Stream app: watch top networks and live sports on the go and get your entire channel lineup on any screen at home.

 

How can I find out if there's an outage or service interruption happening near me?

There can be a number of reasons why we might experience a network event, including weather and local construction. We have teams who work around the clock locally and nationally to monitor our network and address any issues, many times before they impact our customers. To check for local outages, visit the Outage Status Center. To see the status of your home network and services, sign into My Account. And you can report an issue online if you are concerned about wires in your area.

 

How can Xfinity help low-income Americans with affordable Internet service?

We've been looking for ways to help through our Internet Essentials program, the nation's largest and most comprehensive broadband adoption program for low-income Americans. Effective March 16, we are putting in place two substantial program enhancements to help these families deal with this crisis.

1. We will make it even easier for low-income families who live in a Comcast service area to sign up by offering new customers 60 days of complimentary Internet Essentials service, which is normally available to all qualified low-income households for $9.95/month.
2. We are increasing Internet speeds for the Internet Essentials service from 15/2 Mbps to 25/3 Mbps for all new and existing customers, which will be the speed of the service going forward. In this way, we will ensure that Internet Essentials customers will be able to use their Internet service for all their increased needs as a result of this health crisis.

We want to make it as fast and simple as possible to access this service:

• To receive the increased Internet speeds, existing customers will not need to do anything.
• For new customers, 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.

 

 

Source:

https://corporate.comcast.com/covid-19

 

Additional Information:

https://www.xfinity.com/prepare

https://www.internetessentials.com/covid19

https://forums.xfinity.com/t5/On-Demand/Comcast-NBCUniversal-Moves-To-Make-Current-Movies-Available/td-p/3314092

https://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Internet/ANSWERED-How-to-Use-a-VPN-with-Your-Xfinity-Internet-Service/ta-p/3314082

https://corporate.comcast.com/press/releases/comcast-nbcuniversal-moves-to-make-current-movies-available-in-the-home

https://corporate.comcast.com/stories/sky-to-make-new-cinema-releases-available-the-same-day-in-the-home