Connect2Compete, FCC Launching Digital Training Program

Best Buy's Geek Squad, HUD will partner in effort

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/14/2013 10:44:50 AM

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski and representatives from the Connect2Compete broadband initiative will join with HUD secretary Shaun Donovan, Best Buy and others Thursday to announce a new national digital literacy training program.

With the help of Best Buy's Geek Squad, the training program will launch this spring.

According to the FCC, a third of Americans still don't subscribe to broadband services at home and 60 million lack the digital literacy to make best use of computers and the Internet.

Connect2Compete is the cable operator-backed public-private partnership for broadband deployment and adoption to low-income households who are not currently broadband subs. Not only do cable ops get to help out, but they can potentially grow their customer base through the program.

C2C was launched by the FCC last November, expanding on Comcast's Internet Essentials model of providing low-cost broadband -- $9.95 a month -- digital literacy education and low-cost computers to every home with a school-age child who qualifies for the nation's free-lunch program.

C2C had a three-year goal of raising $20 million to help provide computers, access and training.