No
community has escaped the wrath of COVID-19. The
impact is reflected across America, in big cities
and small towns. Local businesses have shuttered
their doors, food bank lines are long, children
learn at home instead of at school. Our employees
live in the communities we serve, so we could see
firsthand that many of the people we serve needed
our help. Mediacom responded to the pandemic with
a collective action reflective of our company’s
culture of caring. Our efforts included a focus
on feeding hungry families, expanding investments
in our low-cost internet access programs and implementing
numerous changes to our high-speed data plans to
accommodate the unprecedented growth of remote schooling,
telework and telemedicine.
“The COVID pandemic has put tremendous strain
on our nation, and so many American families are
struggling to put food on the table in these difficult
times,” said Mediacom Founder, Chairman and
CEO, Rocco B. Commisso. “As a company, we are
fortunate to serve 1,500 small and mid-sized cities
and towns across 22 states. I know I speak for all
of our employees when I say how important it is
to help our friends and neighbors in these communities
during their time of need.”
$100,000 for Food Banks
In December 2020, Mediacom announced a plan to
donate $100,000 on behalf of our employees to a
network of community food banks. The cash donations
will go to organizations connected to the Feeding
America network, the nation’s largest domestic
hunger-relief organization, which reports that 1
in 6 Americans face food insecurity due to the pandemic.
Mediacom
has already contributed $10,000 to both the Food
Bank of Iowa and the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley.
Iowa is the state with Mediacom’s largest number
of employees and customers, and New York’s
Hudson Valley is home to the company’s corporate
offices.
The cash contributions are critical to ongoing
operations of these organizations. “In 2019,
we provided 16 million pounds of food, but in 2020,
due to COVID, we provided 22 million pounds of food
because of the increased need,” said Sara Gunn,
Director of the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley.
In addition, Mediacom donated $10,000 to Fearless!
Hudson Valley, an organization that provides comprehensive
services, including shelter, to victims and survivors
of interpersonal violence, human trafficking, sexual
violence, and other types of crime victimization.
“For years, Mediacom and its employees have
been proud participants in the Adopt-a-Family holiday
project conducted by Fearless! Hudson Valley,”
said Italia Commisso Weinand, Mediacom’s Executive
Vice President of Programming & Human Resources.
“While we were not able to collect gifts in
December due to the ongoing pandemic, we hope our
monetary donation made the holidays a little brighter
for the families served by this wonderful organization.”
Broadband Investments Help Those in Need
In
March 2020 as lockdowns and school closures gripped
our communities, we realized that our gigabit backbone
was a powerful tool help our communities address
the challenges caused by the pandemic. We immediately
doubled our efforts to help low-income families
with K-12 students receive home internet service
through our Connect2Compete program.
For example, Mediacom collaborated with dozens
of school districts including Waterloo Community
Schools to enable K-12 education to continue safely
at home. The school identified students receiving
free school lunches who also did not have internet
access. Mediacom provided free installation and
equipment, and the school paid for service through
a bulk purchase agreement. Through efforts like
these, Mediacom has been able to provide low-cost
broadband services to more than 14,000 low-income
families since the start of the pandemic.
Additional initiatives included:
- Offering Mediacom’s Connect2Compete
low-cost internet program free for 60 days to new
qualifying families and $9.95 a month thereafter
- Increasing the speed of the Connect2Compete
service to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream
- Lowering the new customer price of Mediacom’s
Access Internet 60 service to $19.99 per month for
12 months (down from $29.99)
- Pausing monthly data allowances across
all internet service tiers for six months.
- Providing complimentary access to all
Mediacom Xtream Wi-Fi hotspots for six months.
“Mediacom recognized that our broadband network
would be a powerful tool used to combat the spread
of the coronavirus in the communities we serve,”
said John Pascarelli, Mediacom’s EVP of Operations.
“By helping as many people as possible get
online, we hoped to create opportunities for patients
to safely connect with their doctors through telemedicine
applications, for students to continue their studies
online, and for employees to work from home.”
As our country continues to battle COVID-19, our
company is committed to addressing the ongoing needs
of our neighbors and the communities we serve.
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