AT&T Foundation to provide Web access for needy families

The AT&T Foundation announced today they will launch AT&T AccessAll, a three-year, $100 million program that will provide in-home Internet and technology access to 50,000 low-income communities in collaboration with One Economy Corp., Habitat for Humanity affiliates and other low-income housing providers.

AT&T Chairman and CEO Edward Whitacre is scheduled to announce the program today at the 35^th Annual Rainbow PUSH Coalition & Citizen Education Fund Conference in Chicago. The program is designed to complement the foundation's existing $83 million investment in technology for the underserved.

"One of the areas that we've always wanted to impact was in-home technology access for the underserved equation," said AT&T Foundation President Laura Sanford. "So many of the initiatives that have been out there have worked in the community access space and where we really wanted to have an impact and kind of the genesis of this program was to get out the in-home access space."

Sanford said getting in-home Internet access to underserved families is important because it will allow disadvantaged children to use the same technologies as their peers to complete homework assignments. For adults, the program is expected to improve access to career boards and other employment resources. Members of the AT&T Pioneers, the company's employees and retiree volunteer organization, will provide basic computer training to recipients who need it.

The project will be funded through approximately $70 million in grants and contributions from AT&T and the AT&T Foundation, as well as a $30 million in-kind donation of Internet access through One Economy Corp., which will donate complete packages of computer equipment and Internet access to 15,000 families, and standalone Internet access, or discounted access to 35,000 additional households. All recipients must be current or future residents of Habitat for Humanity or low-income housing communities.
Other sponsors include Dell, Siemens, Intel and AmeriCorps VISTA.

Whitacre also will announce AT&T's plans to increase its spending with minority-, women- and disabled veteran-owned businesses by $250 million in the coming year. AT&T spokesman David Bloom said some of those opportunities will come in the areas of financial services, network deployment and in multicultural marketing efforts.