To help students keep up during coronavirus shutdown, Sacramento launching Wi-Fi buses
Sacramento neighborhoods with low internet access will get daily visits from buses providing Wi-Fi starting Monday.
Since mid-March, when most school districts canceled class due to the coronavirus, teachers have been reliant on the internet to teach students and send out homework. But students without high-speed Internet at their homes have been at a disadvantage and falling behind.
To address that, city, Regional Transit and state officials partnered up to send three buses to areas in need Monday through Friday next week, with seven more buses joining in the week of May 11 when service will be offered seven days a week, a news release said. All 10 buses will be available during the remainder of the 60-day program. The buses will provide 3.5 hours of wireless broadband service at two locations each day.
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Cradlepoint, Sierra Wireless and Aruba are offering equipment and Internet services for free.
The service will have a range of up to 1,800 feet, meaning it will reach some residences’ backyards, but it will not go through walls, Stewart said.
“We’re trying to put them in places where there’s parking lots, open spaces where people can be in the open while social distancing and receive connectivity at fairly good speeds,” said Louis Stewart, the city’s chief innovation officer.
The program is mostly intended for students, as well as people needing to telework or for telehealth purposes.
“We’re not trying to promote people to come watch Netflix,” Stewart said. “This is primarily for students to do homework, check in for attendance purposes or at least download their homework.”
The service will not require a password, but users will be asked to select if they are using it for work, school or personal purposes, Stewart said. People will need to bring their own devices.
About one in five California students do not have high-speed Internet access and almost half of all low-income households do not have broadband service at home, the release said.
More than a third of low-income families in Twin Rivers Unified, Center Joint Unified, Robla Elementary and Sacramento City Unified school districts said they did not have internet in their homes, according to data from The Education Trust.
The effort was launched by Gov. Gavin Newsom April 20, but Sacramento is one of the first cities in the state to launch a project of this type. In mid-April, Monterey County launched a similar project using school buses at three locations.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in the release he hoped to see the project replicated on a larger scale across the state.
“These mobile Wi-Fi bus hotpots will help remedy the lack of internet access that threatens to leave thousands of our students farther behind,” Steinberg said in the release.
If the project works well, officials might use it again when there is a wildfire or earthquake or other natural disaster that knocks out power. Local officials are also discussing whether to continue the service after the virus passes, though a school district or city would need to start paying for it, Stewart said.
There is no limit on the number of people who can use the service at once, but if too many show up officials will have to increase the bandwidth and may have to reduce the crowd if they cannot socially distance.
Here’s where the buses will be on Monday, May 4
8:30 a.m. to noon
Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 7340 24th St. Bypass
Ethel Baker Elementary, 5717 Laurine Way
Max Baer Park, 7851 35th Ave.
3 to 6:30 p.m.
John Still Elementary, 2250 John Still Drive
Pacific Elementary, 6201 41st St.
Del Paso Heights Library, 920 Grand Ave.
The schedule is different every day, and will be expanded the week of May 11. More details are available at www.thewifibus.com.
This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 4:27 PM.
