Accessibility, Community Impact, Digital Equity, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Internet Essentials, Network Expansion

Building & Strengthening Connections: Our 2023 Year in Review

January 4, 2024

Across our Beltway region, we continue to focus on fostering connections with our customers and communities. From enhancing and expanding our network and its technology, to adding value to our Internet and entertainment experiences for our customers, to growing our partnerships with community organizations to promote digital equity and more, here are some of the ways we’ve worked to bring important moments to life this past year.

Connectivity and Entertainment

We continued to expand the Xfinity 10G Network to more homes and businesses, bringing our products and services to new communities. This includes:

Delaware

Partnering with Governor John Carney and the Delaware Department of Technology and Information to connect more than 2,600 homes and businesses in rural parts of Sussex County.

Maryland

Connecting 1,000 additional homes and businesses across the state as part of the Connect Maryland initiative, including in Baltimore County, Calvert County, Charles County, Garrett County, Montgomery County and Prince George’s County. This includes partnering with Baltimore County to bring high-speed Internet to 99% of homes in rural parts of Northern Baltimore County that previously lacked service.

Announcing an expansion to more than 17,500 homes and businesses across 450 miles in St. Mary’s County.

Virginia

Completing an expansion to 13,700 additional homes and businesses across 200 miles in Christiansburg.
Connecting more than 3,300 homes and businesses in Strasburg.

We recently introduced the first residential customers in the world to next-generation Internet powered by DOCSIS 4.0 technology. The latest version of DOCSIS technology is a giant leap forward in Internet connectivity that can deliver multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds to customers over the connections that already exist in tens of millions of homes in Comcast markets across the country.

To help keep customers connected no matter where they are, Xfinity Mobile has made switching even easier, offering a convenient, cost-effective alternative to other mobile providers. And our business customers are enjoying the benefits as well, as we continue to evolve Comcast Business Mobile.

Comcast Business kept businesses of all sizes connected and prepared for what’s next, including local customers like Roy’s Body Shop, a one-stop-shop automotive repair and sales company with two locations in Sykesville, Maryland.

As unpredictable weather continues to affect our area year-round, Comcast became the first Internet Provider to offer a product designed to maintain connectivity when a storm hits, trees are down or a customer experiences a local outage, with the launch of Storm-Ready WiFi.

Giving our customers more to love in entertainment, we began offering Xfinity’s “Free this Week” experience, a weekly selection of movies, shows and apps, on us.

And to provide a destination for more of our neighbors to experience the complete line of Xfinity and Comcast Business products and services, we opened new Xfinity Stores in locations such as Timonium, MD.

Community Impact

Through Project UP, we connected with more local organizations and elected officials and strengthened our long-standing relationships to advance digital equity and help build a future of unlimited possibilities for our customers and communities. We launched Digital Navigator programs with partners such as the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) and The Purple Zone in Richmond, VA to empower trusted voices to help more people connect to the Internet, use devices and acquire digital skills.

We also donated laptops and awarded grants to local organizations like the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training (MCVET) in Baltimore, MD, the Boys & Girls Club of Huntington in West Virginia, the Chickahominy Indian Tribe in Charles City County, VA, and Catholic Charities’ Washington, DC chapter. All of this and more is centered around our mission to help drive awareness and adoption of the Federal Government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides eligible low-income households with a credit of up to $30 per month ($75 per month on Tribal lands) toward their Internet and/or mobile service.

Thanks to ACP, eligible Comcast customers can get home Internet through Comcast’s Internet Essentials or Internet Essentials Plus at no cost once the federal credit is applied. Internet Essentials customers can also add a line of unlimited 5G cellular data ($45) through Xfinity Mobile for as little as $24.95/month after the ACP benefit is applied.

And for 100 small businesses in Baltimore City, we announced new Comcast RISE comprehensive grant packages that include business consultation services, educational resources, a $5,000 monetary grant, creative production, media schedule and a technology makeover.

Our People

We heard from many of our team members, such as Sharon, about the connections they have made with their colleagues, customers and community members throughout the region. We also spotlighted our teammates who helped us celebrate Diversity, Equity & Inclusion throughout 2023, as well as volunteers working through Team UP, our national volunteerism program.

Our employees are what make us an award-winning workplace, named to lists like Fast Company’s ‘Best Workplaces for Innovators’ and ‘DiversityInc’s Top 50 list.’

Looking Ahead

We’re proud of the new connections we’ve made and the ones we’ve continued to foster with our customers and communities across the region, and we’re looking forward to even more partnership and innovation in the year to come.

For more of Comcast’s 2023 news, visit corporate.comcast.com/press.