Students in North Carolina’s Rutherford County School District will be part of a pilot program aimed at bringing them free Wi-Fi as the result of a collaboration between Facebook, the Town of Forest City (where the social network has a data center), Rutherford County Schools, and PANGAEA Internet.
The partners announced in a press release that the first phase of their initiative will launch immediately, to 75 to 100 homes in the neighborhood surrounding the Rutherford Opportunity Center in Forest City, adding that the town was chosen due to its high concentration of students and a 2011 initiative by the school district to provide a personal laptop to every middle- and high-school student.
Officials of the school district found that nearly one-half of the students who received laptops did not have Internet access at home, prompting the initiative.
The Town of Forest City is providing the space and power for the Wi-Fi end points, while Facebook is providing the actual end points, and the network signal is coming from PANGAEA.
The parties said future phases will include expanding access to more students, as well as improving network performance.
Keven McCammon, site manager for Facebook’s data center in Forest City, said in the release:
Connectivity can open up new opportunities for everyone, and we’re excited to partner with Forest City, the Rutherford County School District, and PANGAEA Internet to help bring that access to more of Forest City’s students. Facebook has called Forest City home for more than three years now, and we are proud to be able to help the community continue to invest in its future.
