Los Angeles County to offer discounted home internet to lower-income residents in some neighborhoods

Los Angeles County has started work on a wireless broadband network that will deliver high-speed connections for as little as $25 a month. The county signed a contract with WeLink of Lehi, Utah, to build the network and offer the service in East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights and South Los Angeles. Qualified households will be offered a $40-per-month discount on WeLink’s rates, meaning they could obtain the basic 500-megabits-per-second service for $25 a month. The contract brings a new internet provider to neighborhoods now served mainly by Spectrum and AT&T, which also offer discounted service for lower-income residents — though at much lower speeds. But it will take months for WeLink to build its network, which will rely on a series of rooftop antennas connected to the internet through existing fiber-optic lines. Unless Congress renews its funding, the Affordable Connectivity Program will be lapsing this month, terminating a $30-per-month benefit that has allowed 23 million lower-income households to obtain broadband service at little or no cost. Los Angeles County has more of these subsidy recipients than any other county in the country — 983,000 households, said Eric Sasaki, manager of major programs for the county’s Internal Services Department. The county’s enrollment, he said, is higher than that in 45 states.