If you have an edtech company that operates a lot of mobile hotspots for schools, one of your challenges will be increasing the availability of high speed internet for students in these areas. Currently, there is very limited wireless internet available to students in these schools. Many schools have Wi-Fi in hallways and in student lounges but it's often hit or miss with internet access. You have to either connect to the wireless in the school and hope someone is awake to connect to it at night or you have to sit at the back of the lounge during the day and hope no one leaves the lounge and goes to the kitchen to use the internet. It's much more challenging for students to use web cams on their smart phones in many of these remote learning situations.
Schools throughout the United States have found themselves in financial hot water when it comes to extending internet access to classrooms and student lounges. Last year, Verizon Wireless settled a lawsuit with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after it was discovered that Verizon Wireless was ignoring FCC guidelines on wireless internet access in schools. The FCC had previously approved the use of wireless in some school facilities but Verizon Wireless went against this. The FCC has since taken steps to prevent wireless providers from ignoring their responsibilities. This has left school districts with a hard choice when it comes to choosing wireless providers that also have the ability to provide mobile hotspots for schools.
If you have experience working with wireless carriers, you'll appreciate the way they work. You can talk to them for hours on end and they won't charge you because you've established a relationship with them. You might want to switch carriers every few months so you keep getting better service. That is less of a hassle than asking your cell phone company if you can extend wireless internet to all your students. Of course, you have to provide them with collateral that gives you the right to do this. That makes school administrators nervous about providing mobile hotspots for schools and makes them wary of even mentioning options like this to their students. You'll want to get as much info as you can on potential hotspot solutions.
There are pros and cons to any option you choose. Providing mobile hotspots for schools may not be the best decision. If you're trying to save some money, you might decide that this option isn't worth it. The question you need to ask yourself is how important is your school's safety to you? If you're trying to protect your students, then you'll want a hotspot that is located in an area that is secure.
Another issue you'll need to address is what are your students using their mobile devices for? There are some activities on their phones that shouldn't be shared with unauthorized users and you don't want to be the person to take away those options. You can have a school-wide plan where everyone shares the mobile hotspots and you can still allow certain communication features to be blocked. This gives each student the freedom to use their devices as they see fit but you can still limit which sites they can go to.
Some parents want their children to be able to use their smartphones and social networking apps while at school. This may be why some are fine with school-wide hotspots but not mobile hotspots. It's a personal choice.
Learn more about mobile hotspot options here: https://www.tomsguide.com/uk/best-picks/best-mobile-hotspots
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