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Affordable internet service will be available to households and small businesses in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights starting later this year.<\/p>\n
Internet plans will start at $25 per month for qualifying households. For those who don\u2019t qualify, plans will start at $65 per month. Monthly rates, excluding any government fees or taxes, are fixed until at least September 2027.<\/p>\n
The services will start in limited areas of East L.A. and Boyle Heights by the end of 2025, with further expansion in 2026.<\/p>\n
What the plans includeSpeeds of at least 500 megabits per secondUnlimited dataA free Wi-Fi routerParental controlsMultilingual customer supportNo cash deposits or credit checks are required\u00a0
\nWho\u2019s behind the service?<\/p>\n
This service will be made possible through a \u201cDelete The Divide\u201d partnership between the Los Angeles County’s Internal Services Department and internet provider WeLink Communications, which already offers<\/a> high-speed internet service in Estrada Courts.<\/p>\n It\u2019s estimated that more than 20,000 households in the East L.A. and Boyle Heights area are without home internet, according to the Delete The Divide initiative.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThese areas have been greatly impacted by the digital divide, which was further heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d according to a joint statement<\/a> by the county and WeLink.<\/p>\n Eric Sasaki, a manager with the county\u2019s Internal Services Department, said internet plans will be fast enough to support multigenerational households with multiple devices.<\/p>\n He added that service representatives will go door-to-door to advertise the offer and to sign people up on the spot.<\/p>\n Additional neighborhoods covered<\/p>\n Other neighborhoods that will be covered under this initiative are: Lincoln Heights, Montecito Heights, El Sereno. A full list can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n How to get notified<\/p>\n Delete The Divide offers an interactive map on its website<\/a> showing where the service will be available. If you\u2019re within the service areas, you can sign up to receive updates about availability<\/a>.<\/p>\n Application and availability details<\/p>\n Requirements for the low-cost plan are still being finalized. The county and WeLink are working to ensure that:<\/p>\n Residents will be able to apply and receive an immediate decisionThis new service is sustainable and will continue to expand in the future<\/p>\n There may be a waiting list for the low-cost plan due to expected demand. However, the $65\/month plan (with at least 500 Mbps speeds) will be available without qualification requirements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keep up with LAist. If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[30966,42429,22018,61,206,60,116,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-61589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-affordable","9":"tag-boyle-heights","10":"tag-eastside","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-internet","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}