President Obama To Announce ConnectHome Program During Durant Visit

President Barack Obama will announce the ConnectHome program, a new initiative with communities, the private sector, and federal government to expand high speed broadband to more families across the country, during his visit to Durant, Oklahoma, Wednesday afternoon.

7/15/2015 Related Story: President Obama To Visit Durant On Wednesday

According to White House officials, the pilot program is launching in 27 cities and one tribal nation and will initially reach over 275,000 low-income households, and nearly 200,000 children, with the support they need to access the Internet at home.

Internet Service Providers, non-profits and the private sector will offer broadband access, technical training, digital literacy programs, and devices for residents in assisted housing units, officials said.

ConnectHome is the next step in the President’s continued efforts to expand high speed broadband to all Americans and builds on his ConnectED initiative that is on track to connect 99 percent of K-12 students to high-speed Internet in their classrooms and libraries over the next five years.  ConnectHome will help ensure that these students still have access to high-speed Internet once they are home.

Learn more about ConnectHome here. 

News9.com and Newson6.com plan to live stream the news conference at about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday.