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Sprint To Provide 1 Million Students With Free Internet, Mobile Devices (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Wireless carrier Sprint Corp on Tuesday pledged to provide 1 million U.S. high school students with free mobile devices and internet access as part of a White House initiative to expand opportunities for lower income kids. Marcelo Claure, chief executive of Sprint, said the plan builds on the company's prior commitment through the White House's ConnectED program to get 50,000 students high speed internet. He said Sprint realized that while providing students with internet at school was helpful, students would still need to be able to use the internet at home. "We are going to equip 1 million kids with the tools they need to reach their full potential and achieve their dreams," Claure told reporters on a White House call. Sprint aims to give cell phones, tablets, laptops or mobile hot spots to students who do not have internet at home. Students would be able to choose the type of device that might meet their needs and it would be coupled with four years of free data plans. The company hopes to reach its goal of a million students in five years. Manufacturers have agreed to provide the mobile devices at no cost, Claure said. He also said the company would encourage customers to donate their old devices to the program and that it would not cost Sprint much to allow the free use of its network.

65 comments

  1. Mystery solved! by JonnyO · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess we know where all those returned Galaxy Note 7's are going.

    1. Re:Mystery solved! by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I guess we know where all those returned Galaxy Note 7's are going.

      Double purpose, acts as central heating if you can't afford the electricity bill.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Mystery solved! by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

      I guess we know where all those returned Galaxy Note 7's are going.

      Double purpose, acts as central heating if you can't afford the electricity bill.

      I'm just not sure how you're going to charge it to provide the heating if you don't have electricity... ... I may not have thought this through completely.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    3. Re:Mystery solved! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [shakes fist] Curse you, laws fo thermodynamics!

    4. Re:Mystery solved! by npslider · · Score: 1

      I'd say it's an even split between e-bay and Craig's list if you ask me! :)

    5. Re:Mystery solved! by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Given how entitled kids feel these days, they'll complain if it's anything other than an iPhone 7/+ in their favorite color

    6. Re: Mystery solved! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry, they have the ability to return trapped energy hidden within the bags, pants boxes or whatever they are carried in no electricity required!

    7. Re:Mystery solved! by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      I think samsung would really have something if they could just figure out how to get it to catch fire on demand instead of at random.

      I was disappointed to find that if you wanted to have a kindle fire you had to actually light it yourself!

      --
      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
  2. Re: Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think you misunderstood what is happening here. This is a business and marketing deal for Sprint. They get to hand out the first one for free and charge a lot for added services.

  3. Much better than Facebook by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

    This is a much better than Facebook's plan of giving access to their tailormade list of sites that suits their interests.

    Anyone who has kids knows how much the internet is central to a child's schooling needs now. It's more than just using the internet for research now. The internet is used as the medium in which teachers hand out assignments, give grades, accept assignments.

    Without internet you can't be an affective student. If your parents don't have internet service you have to go places to access it from free-public places; libraries, whilst they're open, etc. Poor kids manage, but it's a definite disadvantage than having to access your work from home. Poor kids in rural areas are probably in extra trouble.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    1. Re:Much better than Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Without internet you can't be an affective student.

      Oh come on. You can pretend to be a student with our without Internet access. Although most online "students" are really faking it, but so are the "universities".

    2. Re:Much better than Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Without internet you can't be an affective student.

      *effective

  4. Re:Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Desler · · Score: 1

    Sprint is part of the government? Poor troll is poor.

  5. Re:Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 0

    more like You go to school, get good grades and get a 30K+ loan in use less skills and end working at Starbucks with a wage to low to pay back that loan.

  6. Re: Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gotta get those voters while they're young! Woo them with free internet, let them read more liberal news, vote democrat, more free stuff, etc.

    You just shut the fuck up old man and pay your taxes like a good little boy. Oh by the way, we need your social security money to pay for all the handouts. Shut up, you don't get a say anymore.

  7. Re:Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't worry, Hillary will end the handouts when she's President.

    HAHAHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHHA

  8. Re:Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What are you going to do when Trump loses, you coward?

  9. Re:Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    You go to school, get good grades, get a good job, stay out of trouble, all to make a good living and enjoy some luxuries.

    But it looks like you don't need to do that because the fucking government is giving it all away.

    Why would anyone want to escape poverty when poverty in the US is merely a lower middle class lifestyle?

    You make it sound like you're more angry that poor people aren't accepting their station in life as being far beneath you than you are angry that the government is intervening (in this case, it's not).

    How dare those pesky peasants try and make anything from their life and approach the status and rank of Sir Anonymous of Coward.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  10. Re: Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well rustle up yer rooty tooty point-n-shooty and them good ol' boys, and put them takers in a shallow grave, brave internet warrior.

  11. Ineffective? by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    Hadn't I read somewhere that a study was done over time that showed that handing out free tech to students really didn't make them better students or give them better grades?

    1. Re:Ineffective? by npslider · · Score: 1

      It's hard to focus on learning when you are going hungry. We tune out non-essential's when our basic needs are not being met.

    2. Re:Ineffective? by ADRA · · Score: 1

      I think that's along the lines of in-class teaching which probably doesn't enhance a kid's learning vs. pens/paper. That said, the Internet is essential to most school research work now, as libraries are often underfunded, carrying obsolete material, or simply not having information on a vast amount of topics necessary for children to self-direct their studies.

      --
      Bye!
    3. Re:Ineffective? by npslider · · Score: 1

      Trouble with the Internet: not everything out there is true. Perhaps the faked moon landings, UFO projects, and the newest patented tin-foil hat design are reliable, but how do we really know that when Wikipedia says that George Washington was the first American President, that it's correct? I've seen UFO's, and Bigfoot told me about the UFO's, but has anyone ever seen this Washington dude?

      Lies, all lies. The Internet is full of them.

      Give me a full set of Encyclopedia Britannica any day.

    4. Re: Ineffective? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably true. Thing is though almost everything is now done online so its pretty difficult to do many things without Internet access. Plus irrespective of grades, online resources are great for learning the basics. A repair your PC video series is more accessible than a giant hardback tech manual, for example.

    5. Re:Ineffective? by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      No clue, but if your talking about a something with facebook and candycrush in the middle of a class I'm sure the kid isn't paying any attention to the teacher. They confiscate smart phone at our high school if they catch students using them during class.

    6. Re: Ineffective? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      A repair your PC video series is more accessible than a giant hardback tech manual, for example.

      You must be a millennial. The rest of us read "loosen the screw" and we know which way to turn it.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    7. Re:Ineffective? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Only LUDDITE students read books and write with pencils, etc etc APPS!

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    8. Re:Ineffective? by ADRA · · Score: 1

      Britannica's are wrong too, and in fact have a single editor-centric view of the world, so a contentious article would either be: "The Editor's favourite selection", or a smaller, more ambiguous view of the topic. And of course since you generally buy a set for life, errors and omissions will essentially never be known to the original reader.

      The internet (wikipedia specifically) have temporal errors which are statistically removed over time (often immediately after discovery) and their articles often lack authority. Authority as I've mentioned is never perfect, regardless of which source you decide to ascribe to. There are internet based sources that attempt to take Wikipedia's 'commons' based contribution scheme and instead focus on authoritative authors instead.

      Lastly, its been estimated that Britannica (who's content is generally very good) only covers about 1/50th of the content in Wikipedia (probably far more now). Even if its incredibly well researched and completely unbiased, there's still a significantly large amount of information that simply isn't available. Of course, Britannica is also available online, so lies lies lies.. etc.. I'm sure every kid has the means of buying the hard-covers...

      --
      Bye!
    9. Re:Ineffective? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Where is that? In the US it'd be unconstitutional, in the EU it'd be against human rights, and anywhere it'd be "Sooooooo unfair!".

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    10. Re:Ineffective? by npslider · · Score: 1

      I'm sure every kid has the means of buying the hard-covers...

      For the incredible low low price of $9.95 a month*, ANY student can afford** to own their own mint-condition Encyclopedia Britannica Special Hard Copy Edition!

      * For 100 months
      **Requires a low-interest payment plan and credit check

      or you can buy this:

      https://www.amazon.com/Encyclo...

    11. Re:Ineffective? by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      That's in the US... They only confiscate them until the end of class and only for repeat offends that refuse to stop, the school district doesn't want to be liable for some over priced smart phone.

    12. Re:Ineffective? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's plenty of students who aren't going hungry, but don't have a computer+internet access at home.

    13. Re:Ineffective? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FWIW I'm teaching in a high school where phones are confiscated until the end of class all the time. At my last high school they were confiscated until the end of the day on a 1st offense, until the parent/guardian picked the phone up on a 2nd offense, and eventually for weeks at a time.

    14. Re:Ineffective? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep it up.....attitudes like yours keep my 2nd hand bookshops full of cheap versions of perfectly good books, culled from schools' libraries because they've gone to electronic media. So while book companies continue to rip students off, now with electronic media, I get the same books for next to nothing and I don't even need an electronic device to read it.

    15. Re:Ineffective? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I think people don't understand exactly what kids do online (for school).

      It's not just about them being able to go to Wikipedia to look up what happened in the war of the golden stool.

      Teachers give assignments via internet portals. Students turn in assignments via internet portals. Without internet, it's not that you can't look up on a map where the city of Mörön is. It's that you can't turn your assignments in. You can't see what your assignments are. Thus bad grades.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    16. Re:Ineffective? by npslider · · Score: 1

      I find it so strange that this is how assignments are turned in now; only because of how things were back in my days as a student. I know that was simply due to the Internet tools to do so not being present yet. Everything was done on paper and much of that was given to us as our "homework". This had the positive benefit of being an attainable thing to complete regardless of the technology available in my house.

      Odd that in one way, technological 'progress' has actually hindered, not helped some people's education.

    17. Re:Ineffective? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Would you check your stock? I'm looking for Slashdot Memes, 3rd Edition by J.R.Hartley.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  12. Re: Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    who they will have to vote for this?

  13. Re: Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are you being sarcastic, or are you just some millennial cunt? Or worse, some fucking NEET parasite? AC or no, I think you'd better clarify who and what you are.

  14. as they said... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get'em while they're young. First hit is free.

  15. Re:Why does Iggy Pop even Fucking Bother? by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

    You go to school, get good grades, get a good job, stay out of trouble, all to make a good living and enjoy some luxuries.

    # Dum dum daah, dum dum didah dum, Dum dum daah, dum dum didah dum, LUST FOR LIFE!

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  16. Education discount by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This screams political garbage. Sprint,AT&T and Verizon promote Family plans. How do you legally provide kids unlimited data? What is to prevent them from using it for streaming movies? How can a parent control misuse of the device?

  17. Re:Why do I even Fucking Bother? by SirSlud · · Score: 1

    Well, you don't have to. If it's so adventageous not to get good grades, not to get a job, not to stay out of trouble, and not to make a good living, then by all means, don't do any of those things you "don't have to do."

    My guess? You won't, because you damn well know that poverty in the US isn't merely a lower middle class lifestyle. Put your money where you mouth is or else you're trying to have your argument both ways.

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  18. The Eternal September continues by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Thanks AOL.

  19. More is needed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Internet access is a great step. This is really, really cool, and definitely I will do more to find out about how to help my students get free access to the internet.

    What is really needed is a way to easily use a cheap android phone as a laptop. Tablets definitely have their place, but for typing a report having a keyboard makes for a much better essay.

  20. Re: Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My name is HUMA ABEDIN and I work for a vip thank you very much

  21. Re:Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't wait until every last social safety net and regulation is dismantled, just so a pestilence like you and your family can finally understand what it is to truly suffer.

  22. Verizon kinda does that by BrookHarty · · Score: 1

    A friend at a local seattle community college received a verizon hotspot. Seems the college gave wifi units to every student, with no data caps. Not sure what the agreement was, or how it was included with the student fees, but all the students received them. unlimited verizon wifi hotspots (wow!)

    We pay over 150 bux a month for 15gigs on verizon for ours, and these students had unlimited access. Crazy. As theres no high speed data in the rural areas of Washington state, and sat is over subscribed. Waiting or Viasat 2 and 3 to launch, so we can get it.

    1. Re:Verizon kinda does that by npslider · · Score: 1

      I wonder, what proportion of that free unlimited bandwidth contributed to distractions from one's studies vs advancing one's education?

      I'm sure many people used it wisely, but with such bandwidth, comes great opportunity...

  23. Re: Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think you misunderstood what is happening here.

    He's roman_mir, king of the libertards. He does that a lot.

  24. Re:Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice try HUMA ABEDIN.

  25. Re: Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To be fair dude, most of your cash goes to the military industrial complex and assorted parasitic supercorps.

    Whining abour poor kids getting free internet makes you sound like a special snowflake. Remember these kids will hopefully get jobs and pay the taxes to keep your social security cheques coming over the next few decades.

  26. Re: Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Internet tough guy alert!

  27. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sprint is losing money hand over fist. They can't afford this.

    1. Re:Why? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Depends on what sort of phone they give away. They could try w/ some low end LG or Samsungs

  28. What's the catch? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Can't believe Son and his buddies are doing this out of the goodness of their heart...

  29. Re:Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why do you hate America?

  30. Re: Why do I even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Having it given to you is hardly them trying to improve their lot. you stupid cock sucker

  31. Re:Why do I even Fucking Bother? by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Who forced them to pick a useless degree?

    At least they had a nice four or five year party.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  32. Here we go again... by wjcofkc · · Score: 1

    This solves nothing. Let's drop advanced Algebra and Trigonometry as required electives and allow students to spend their high school years studying discreet mathematics. I'm not saying advanced Algebra, Trig, and even Calculus should be omitted, but give kids a chance to learn something practical. Not to mention, discreet mathematics easily bleeds into structural linguistics. Not enough teachers to cover that much ground? That is another subject entirely.

    --
    Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
    1. Re:Here we go again... by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Algebra is very useful in the real world. Even though you don't see the formula 5A = 14 + 6 written down on blackboards in real life and have to solve that problem, Algebra shows up in plenty of real life scenarios.

      As a programmer I use Algebra every day for my job too.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  33. More Customers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So now Sprint will have 1.5 million customers in the next five years!

  34. Re: Why do I even Fucking Bother? by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

    I think you misunderstood what is happening here. This is a business and marketing deal for Sprint. They get to hand out the first one for free and charge a lot for added services.

    I'm somewhat inclined to think that there's probably a tax writeoff somewhere. That is, for each line that they give somebody for free, they might do something like claim that they "donated" whatever the regular price is, even though it doesn't cost them anywhere near that much. And given how shitty Sprint is, they could use all of the cost savings they can get.

  35. Re:Why does Iggy Pop even Fucking Bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Great. Now I want to watch Trainspotting again.