Sprint is offering to provide free internet and smartphone to one million high school students in support of the White House's initiative to help kids from low income earning family.
From 50,000 To One Million
In a report from Reuters, the carrier has pledged to build on its prior commitment under the White House ConnectED program. From the initial target of 50,000 students, the initiative is now targeting one million beneficiaries that can take advantage of free internet connection plus a mobile device.
In the same report, the Chief Executive of Sprint, Marcelo Clare talked about Sprint's plan, citing that though they were able to provide internet to schools, students still need the access at home in order to continue their study. "We are going to equip 1 million kids with the tools they need to reach their full potential and achieve their dreams," Clare said.
Free Internet Service and Device Of Choice
The said program aims to provide students smartphones, laptops, tablets or mobile hotspots as a mean to gain access to the internet at home. Sprint is offering four years of 3GB free data monthly to the chosen type of device for every student beneficiary.
As reported by Cnet, Sprint, in partnership with Sprint Foundation, would tap the help of non-profit organizations EveryoneOn and My Brother's Keepers to empower the program. The company aims for the initiative to achieve nationwide reach by 2017-2018 after successfully doing an initial testing on various markets.
Help Disadvantaged Students From Five Million Families
It was also reported that five million families in the U.S. has no internet connection.Students belonging to those households are hugely disadvantaged by other students that use the internet as an efficient medium of learning. This unfair distribution of opportunities is what the free internet service and smartphone initiative by Sprint is hoping to lessen or eradicate in time.
This program is in line with the carrier's people oriented approach in business as evidenced by Sprint's vision statement of developing into a world class company that is reflective of the communities it serve. Sprint's initiative of giving back to society is an example that other companies, be in the same industry or not, should mirror.
