The South Carolina Department of Education has notified South Carolina Schools that it will stop funding support of the Online Learning Initiative program on July 31, 2021. The Online Learning Initiative is the program that provided free home internet service (hotspots & wireline) to qualified families during the past school year. Households that have been issued hotspots will need to return them at school start up. Households receiving wireline service from Comporium will have the option to discontinue service and return any equipment or to continue service as a direct-billed customer. Comporium will be contacting participants to discuss the direct-billed option. If households choose to discontinue service, they will need to return the cable modem and internet service will be disconnected on August 1, 2021. The modem can be returned to any Comporium retail office, where a Comporium representative will request the service address and process a disconnection order.

Please return all equipment to Comporium by the August 1 deadline. he two nearest Comporium retail stores are listed below.

Comporium Store Locations:

• Lancaster Store
  1091 Hwy 9 Bypass
  Lancaster SC 29720

• Indian Land Store
  7756 Charlotte Highway Suite 106
  Indian Land SC 29707

LCSD families that benefited from the Online Learning Initiative last school year would likely qualify for the FCC-Emergency Broadband Benefit and possibly obtain a higher grade service from this program. The Emergency Broadband Benefit will provide a discount of up to $50 per month towards broadband service for eligible households.

FCC-Emergency Broadband Benefit program details - https://www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit

URL to apply - https://www.checklifeline.org/lifeline/?id=nv_flow&ebbp=true