Stories

When the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools across America last year, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston kept their doors open so that young people could have safe places to continue their classroom learning online while their parents worked. But the clubs faced a big challenge. Not all their spaces were equipped with internet connectivity aside from their technology labs. With social distancing measures and safety protocols being paramount, the clubs needed to utilize every room possible to keep kids in pods and to give every child the ability to connect to their classrooms virtually. This is where the clubs’ long-time relationship with Comcast in the area helped to not only overcome this obstacle, but to set up kids for virtual learning for the long haul. 

Difficult as it may be to believe, this year marks the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The events of September 11th, 2001 altered our history forever, bringing a nation together out of the pain of tragedy while shining a light on the heroism of the first responders who risked their lives to save others.

Labor Day is fast approaching: a time to reflect on the contributions made by generations of workers throughout our nation’s history. This year, we want to shine a light on the employees who kept the nation’s broadband infrastructure up and running throughout the COVID crisis. 

Over the past decade, television has made important strides in terms of diversity, featuring onscreen talent from a widening range of ethnicities, cultures, genders, and sexual identities. While this work is to be applauded, however, it needs to go even deeper. For true diversity is not just about the actors in front of the camera: it’s about who gets to tell the story, and what that story is. Let’s explore the personal story of how Paula Madison, the principle owner founder of The Africa Channel, found a way to research and tell her own story—on TV. 

School is back in session! And thanks to widely accessible … Continued

Variations in weather often threaten our physical infrastructure and create spikes in use that stress our wireless networks. But broadband providers try their hardest to hurricane-proof the network by leveraging business continuity plans and disaster recovery teams. Working around the clock, these teams monitor and assess threats, establish emergency notification systems, train response personnel, and set up online tools to keep people connected.

“Binge-watching”—the popular term for watching multiple episodes of a TV show in succession—has become part of our lingo, thanks to rerun marathons on TV and the rise of streaming media platforms, many of which began releasing entire seasons at a time. And with the onset of COVID in 2020, the practice saw an exponential increase. According to an international study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, 73.7% of respondents reported that their amount of binge-watching increased substantially during the pandemic.

The current pandemic has been a once-in-a-century health crisis, upending lives and livelihoods worldwide. With the need for safe access to healthcare during the crisis came a renewed focus on an emerging phenomenon: telehealth, or the use of the internet to provide quality care at a distance.