Parents Offered Free High-Speed Internet To Help With Homeschooling

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the repeated lockdowns are playing havoc with all our lives to varying degrees, but it’s been particularly hard for parents.

As we return once more to lockdown—the harshest iteration yet—not only do parents have to contend with adjusting their own work life, but they now have to make sure their children have everything they need to transform the home into a classroom. It’s far from easy, especially when you consider that Telecoms regulator Ofcom estimated that more than 880,000 children live in a household without WiFi, but there is at least one glimmer of hope that could potentially make things a little easier.

Internet provider Hyperoptic announced that 37 local authorities across the UK would be offered the chance to have a high-speed connection installed with no usage charges until the end of the summer term, at which point consumers would be able to cancel without charge.

Crucially, the company have pledged that the offer comes with unlimited data and that users could expect consistent service that wouldn’t fluctuate depending on the time of day or the number of connected devices. In the next month alone, they plan to connect at least 2,500 families.

Liam McAvoy, senior director of business development at Hyperoptic, said: “Every child deserves to be able to virtually learn and harness the opportunities that are enabled by connectivity. We hope others in the industry join us in providing free connectivity to families that need most.”