AT&T today announced discounted unlimited wireless data plans and content filtering services for more than 135,000 public and private K-12 schools, colleges and universities for a limited time. The AT&T COVID-19 education offer is designed to help cope with the combined connection issues caused by COVID-19 and the digital divide, the company said.
The announcement continues the trend of carriers offering educators and students connection benefits that started in the earliest days of the pandemic, as Telecompetitor has reported.
Under the AT&T offer announced today, for $15 a month, schools can migrate existing AT&T lines or activate new lines for students on a qualified unlimited wireless data plan and content filtering service. Schools will have the option of adding a free AT&T Moxee hot spot at no cost after bill credits.
Two dozen student activations will qualify a school to activate a free line with the same services for one teacher.
AT&T’s offer is good through December 29. Schools adding at least one line can activate additional lines for the same price for an additional two years.
In addition to offering the discounted plans, the carrier is pledging $10 million worth of free broadband connectivity and related resources to support disconnected at-risk students. The program will be administered with non-profit Connected Nation and will also expand the availability of tech-enabled tools and learning resources for students, teachers and schools.
“While the homework gap is not new, the pandemic and the critical need for remote learning has made it worse,” AT&T said in a press release about the AT&T COVID-19 education initiatives. “This nationwide problem disproportionately impacts 1 in 3 students of color, as well as students with disabilities and students in rural and under-resourced neighborhoods. Additionally, 300,000 to 400,000 K-12 teachers live in households without adequate internet connectivity or home computing devices – roughly 10 percent of all public school teachers.”
