Sprint and the Sprint Foundation partners with the 1Million Project to give free mobile devices and free high-speed wireless internet to one million low income high school students in the United States.
“Education is the foundation for our society to prosper, and the internet is an incredibly powerful tool for learning. But it’s a huge problem in America that we have 5 million households with children that lack internet connections. Those kids have a huge disadvantage and we are failing them. All of us at Sprint are committed to changing this by providing 1 million students in need with free devices and free wireless connections.”
-Marcelo Claure, Sprint CEO
As technology pervades our lives, as well as our education system, with gadgets and tools to make our lives easier, low-income students sometimes get left behind. Not every parent can afford to give their sixth grader an iPad if their teacher demands it.
According to Pew Research Center, 5 million families in the United States that have school-aged children don’t have internet access at home. Many schools also use a form of online grading, and require parents to log in to access their child’s progress.
This is where Sprint comes in. The carrier will work with non-profits like EveryoneOn and My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. These organizations will provide free mobile devices and Sprint service for up to four years in high school. Each student get have either a free smartphone, tablet, laptop or hotspot with 3GB of free LTE data per month.
Sprint will start a pilot program in January 2017 to test the program in 7-10 markets. Once the program is tested and refined, it will roll out in time for the 2017/2018 school year.
