Underline comes to communities committed to addressing the growing opportunity divide. Access to the internet should never be the barrier to upward mobility for individuals and families; ultra fast and affordable connections are essential for students completing school work and learning remotely, and for adults who want to re-skill, apply for new jobs, and work from home.
As part of Underline’s work to deliver universal access to high speed connectivity, they are launching the Underline Opportunity Program. For households that qualify for the Affordable Connectivity Program, Underline provides the same full fiber connections and tiers of service that are regularly available—the only difference is the price.
The standard tier of service—500/500 Mbps—is discounted from $49 to become available at no cost, and symmetric gigabit connections are discounted from $65 to $35.
This compares to Comcast’s offerings for ACP-eligible households: speeds “up to 50Mbps” and speeds “up to 100 Mbps”. Underline’s offerings are 10-20 times faster on a full fiber connection.
Today, the company is also issuing a challenge to the rest of the industry to make a change and match this offering—on speed and price.
“It was never an option for us to fund and build new fiber networks without robust plans for ensuring access for every household. It’s core to our mission to deliver internet service that’s fast, affordable, and fair. As such, we think it’s unconscionable to saddle lower-income households with“special” lower tiers of service and in some cases a new bill too—that seems to be at cross-purposes to solving the digital and opportunity divide,” said Underline Founder & CEO, Bob Thompson. “We are proud of our Opportunity Program and challenge the incumbent providers to match our offering nationwide.”