Internet Access

Comcast Corp. says 5,700 low-income families in the Philadelphia area are now participating in a discounted Internet service the cable giant agreed to offer as part of its merger with NBCUniversal. Throughout the nation, 150,000 families have gone online with the program, Comcast said Tuesday. The service costs $9.95 a month, and participants can buy computers for $150. Comcast says 15,000 customers have bought them. Internet Essentials is available to parents with children who qualify for the federal free-lunch program, though families with past-due Comcast bills may not participate.

It's too bad about Ricochet, the wireless Internet service with transmission speeds approaching 128 kilobits per second - more than twice as fast as a dial-up connection. After testing the service, my techie husband and I found Ricochet worked remarkably well in its service areas. There were glitches, of course: The modem sometimes lost the signal, forcing us to log on again. The battery didn't warn when it was running low. The service wasn't available everywhere. But considering the problems I've experienced with the other wireless service I use - my cell phone - Ricochet worked well.

PHOENIX - US Airways announced Wednesday that it would be expanding in-flight Internet access, saying that 90 percent of its mainline domestic airplanes will offer WiFi service to passengers by mid-2013. The airline, which is the dominant carrier servicing Philadelphia International Airport, also said it would launch a streaming-video service that will allow passengers to watch movies and television shows or download audio books on their own laptops, mobile phones, or iPads. The new services are another way for the airline to collect additional revenue as it battles rising fuel costs.

AT&T Corp. yesterday began offering local telephone dial-up access to the Internet. It jump-started the new service with a free, one-year, limited trial for residential customers. "The company that brought everyone the phone now will bring the Internet to everyone," AT&T chairman Robert Allen said. The AT&T WorldNet Service, available to businesses since September, will be available to long-distance home customers through regular phone lines. Under the trial offer, home users who enroll this year will get their first five hours a month of Internet use free for a year, with no minimum subscription fee. Unlimited access is available to all AT&T customers, including businesses, for a flat monthly rate of $19.95.

Big long-distance phone companies are playing games over their deal to make it possible for needy schools, libraries and hospitals to access the Internet. As part of last year's massive deregulation of the telecommunications industry, giant companies got much of the freedom they sought to wheel and deal and to market information - freedom that could be worth billions. In return, they agreed to support steeply discounted Internet connections through a fund totaling $2.25 billion a year for schools and libraries and $400 million for hospitals.

After an informational meeting to address residents' concerns about Pennsbury School District's new technology plan, district officials hope to move forward and upgrade the district's outdated technology. The meeting was to answer questions about the $7 million proposal that was presented to the school board last month. It calls for incorporating new technology into curriculum changes. Internet access will be provided to all students. Besides hundreds of new computers, all schools in the district would be linked to one another.

In Philadelphia to receive an award yesterday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson played down the idea that a racial gap divides Americans. Instead, he said, resources, such as Internet access, are the larger problem. "There is a digital divide among Americans," Jackson said. "When the playing field is even . . . all can compete on the same basis. Now the challenge is to gain access to capital and close the digital divide. " Jackson spoke at a news conference yesterday at the Philadelphia Marriott, during the National Bar Association's 74th annual convention, where he received the group's Humanitarian Award.

Fed up with that cranky DSL connection? Tired of waiting for cable-modem service? Maybe it's time to put up an antenna, because the future of high-speed Internet access is wireless. At least that's how folks such as David Pugh, the chief executive officer of Sting Communications in mostly rural Lebanon County, see it. "We've got a tiger by the tail," Pugh said of his fledgling venture, which beams the Internet to 200 business customers from 40 two-way radio transceivers set on towers, buildings and silos across central and eastern Pennsylvania, including Langhorne and Bensalem.

In the context of war, "ethnic cleansing" and the thousand ills that plague the nations of the former Yugoslavia, the idea of getting Internet access to the Balkans may seem like a futile luxury, let alone a logistical nightmare. But an ardent group of Philadelphia-area university students and professors is bent on widening the battle-scarred information superhighway into Bosnia as part of the rebuilding process in that strife-torn region. Project Bosnia, begun this spring by students at Villanova Law School, has collected 150 used, Internet-ready computers to ship to Bosnian schools and legal institutions.

When students in Susan Darmo's sixth-grade language arts class at Memorial Middle School wanted to know more about Aranka Siegal, whose novel Upon the Head of the Goat depicts her survival of the Holocaust, they went straight to the main source for information. Using the Internet, one student found Siegal's e-mail address, and with a click of a mouse the class sent her their questions and got a quick response from the author. Although the author merely sent back information about her bookstore appearances in the area, Darmo describes the experience as a valuable lesson made possible by reaching out of the classroom through technology.

In 2013, having access to the Internet seems to be the norm, but for nearly half of Philadelphians, that's not the case. They can't surf the Web, connect with friends online, or check their e-mail because they don't have Internet at home. Research has indicated that more than 41 percent of city residents lack Internet access, and on Monday FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn announced at the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia that she is frustrated with this digital divide.

Cyber charter schools, watch out. The Philadelphia School District is coming for your students. Come September, the district - pending School Reform Commission approval Thursday night - will launch the Philadelphia Virtual Academy, an online school for city sixth through 12th graders. The move could net the financially distressed district millions of dollars. This year, about 6,000 city students are enrolled in cyber charters, at a cost to the school system of about $60 million.

Candyce McNeill made a big move last summer. The bubbly 27-year-old left slow, sunny Georgia with her two young kids for fast-paced Philadelphia. She began a job search, but quickly hit a wall. She couldn't afford Internet at home, which meant that she couldn't easily apply for the many jobs that require online applications. She signed up for public assistance to make ends meet. "As a parent, it does hold me back," she said, referring to her lack of Internet access. "I have to be the provider.

Comcast Corp. says 5,700 low-income families in the Philadelphia area are now participating in a discounted Internet service the cable giant agreed to offer as part of its merger with NBCUniversal. Throughout the nation, 150,000 families have gone online with the program, Comcast said Tuesday. The service costs $9.95 a month, and participants can buy computers for $150. Comcast says 15,000 customers have bought them. Internet Essentials is available to parents with children who qualify for the federal free-lunch program, though families with past-due Comcast bills may not participate.

DO YOU NEED cheap Internet access, an affordable laptop or computer classes? How about all of the above? Here's a road map for bridging the digital divide. Say you need to get online ASAP. For free. *  There are 79 free computer labs (a/k/a "Keyspots") in Philadelphia, where you can take computer classes or just go online. Get more information at 3-1-1, 215-851-1990, phillykeyspots.org or @Phillykeyspots on Twitter. *  The Free Library of Philadelphia offers Internet access at many branches.

Nearly 50 years after hundreds of thousands of people crowded the Mall in Washington to hear the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech, more than 100,000 are expected to spend a day volunteering in his name in the region this month for the 18th annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service. At a news conference at Girard College on Wednesday, Todd Bernstein, the founder of Philadelphia's service day - the oldest and largest King service day in the country - said he expected 110,000 volunteers to participate in more than 1,500 community service projects on Jan. 21, topping last year's record of more than 105,000.

PYONGYANG, North Korea - Students at North Korea's premier university showed Google's executive chairman Tuesday how they look for information online: They Google it. But surfing the Internet that way is the privilege of very few in North Korea, whose authoritarian government imposes strict limits on access to the World Wide Web. Google's Eric Schmidt got a first look at North Korea's limited Internet use when an American delegation he and former...

ROCKLIN, Calif. - Two teenagers were arrested after they gave one of the girl's parents milkshakes spiked with prescription sleeping pills so she could use the Internet past her curfew, police said. The medicated shakes worked, but the parents became suspicious when they woke up groggy the next morning, Rocklin Police Lt. Lon Milka told the Sacramento Bee in a story Thursday. They got a drug kit from police so they could test themselves. The tests came back positive, and the couple went back to police with the results.

Now that everyone's an expert on fast facts, I wonder what has become of those Free Library of Philadelphia treasures known as the Know-It-Alls. When I last visited these general-information specialists, in 1991, business was brisk. Surrounded by a wall of books and directories, they fielded 50 phone calls an hour from Philadelphians wondering how to spell Tiananmen Square, what glasnost is, how far to Fargo? The rotating staff of 14 librarians - each with a master's in science - was in such demand that each caller was limited to three questions.