PHILADELPHIA – Comcast announced today that it has installed free WiFi in its 1,000th Lift Zone in St. Paul, Minnesota at The Sanneh Foundation's Seton Center. The company plans to mark the occasion with a $50,000 grant to help support the organization as it rebuilds after being set back by an arsonist. The company also set a new goal to install 250 additional Lift Zones before the end of 2022. Lift Zones are part of Project UP, Comcast's comprehensive, ten year, $1 billion commitment to help build a future of unlimited possibilities.

Originally intended as a multi-year effort, earlier this year the company accelerated its roll-out plans in response to overwhelming public support. Lift Zones came along at a critical time, providing free WiFi access within select recreation, community, and senior centers, as well as public housing computer labs. Students used them for remote learning, even when schools were closed. Adults, too, benefitted because Lift Zones also offer access to hundreds of hours of free digital skills training to help people learn how to get online for remote working, job hunting, and finding telehealth services.

As announced December 6th, Comcast also plans to provide free WiFi at up to 100 veteran-serving locations nationwide. The Lift Zones effort complements Comcast's Internet Essentials program, which, since 2011, has connected a cumulative total of more than 10 million low-income people to the Internet at home.

The Conway Center was the very first Lift Zone Comcast installed. It opened in the Twin Cities in September 2020 and was being used by up to 150 students per day with supervised, online schooling and learning support. During the pandemic, Comcast also brought WiFi to the center's outdoor athletic dome so it could be used for an online learning facility as well.

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