Back in October, Sprint announced the 1 Million Project, an initiative aimed at providing disadvantaged students throughout the United States with a million wireless devices with mobile service free of charge. As the fourth largest carrier in the country explained back then, unobstructed access to the Internet is a requirement for any academic or economic success in the 21st century, which is why it has decided to fund this project and help the less fortunate children in the US. After making that announcement, Sprint started receiving applications for the 1 Million Project pilot program. Today, the Overland Park-based company announced the first participants for the program.
The initial list of participants covers around 4,000 students attending school in 11 cities throughout the United States. More specifically, the 1 Million Project pilot program encompasses six school districts located in California, Missouri, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, as well as five high schools in Massachusetts, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Illinois. In addition to them, the 1 Million Project pilot program will also provide free wireless devices with mobile service to the Teen Services Department at the Village of Park Forest, a non-profit organization from Illinois.
The 1 Million Project is funded by the Sprint Foundation and will allow less fortunate students to choose from a free phone, tablet, computer, or a hotspot device. The pilot program is scheduled to begin in January, after which Sprint will start approaching new schools to join its long-term initiative which is expected to be concluded by early 2022. In other words, the 1 Million Project aims to provide approximately 200,000 students with free wireless devices every year, starting in 2017. Following the conclusion of the pilot program, this initiative will officially begin in time for the 2017-2018 school year.
Doug Michelman, the SVP of Corporate Communications at Sprint, revealed that a vast amount of schools are already interested in participating in the initiative, adding that the Kansas-based carrier will hopefully manage to make a difference in many people’s lives with this program. If you’re interested in contributing to the 1 Million Project, you can do so by making a donation at any Sprint store. Note that you don’t have to donate cash as Sprint will also accept any old wireless device or a computer which it will then proceed to sell and use that money to directly benefit the Sprint Foundation and its 1 Million Project.