Remote Education: Mobile Broadband

(asked on 19th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the remote education support scheme being offered by mobile phone networks in partnership with his Department, how many pupils are receiving support offered by (a) EE, (b) O2, (c) Sky Mobile, (d) SMARTY, (e) Tesco Mobile, (f) Three, (g) Virgin Mobile and (f) Vodafone as of 15 February 2021.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 24th February 2021

As of Monday 15 February 2021, over one million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, academy trusts, local authorities and further education providers. More information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/laptops-and-tablets-data. This data is published every week during term time.

The Department has partnered with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help disadvantaged children get online. We will provide official statistics on the number of requests received for uplifts in mobile data in early March 2021. We will not be able to provide a breakdown of the numbers of requests received for each provider as this information is commercially sensitive for providers.

We are grateful to EE, Lycamobile, O2, Sky Mobile, Smarty, Tesco Mobile, Three, Virgin Mobile, BT Mobile, Vodafone, iD Mobile and giffgaff for supporting the mobile data offer. We are currently engaged with additional mobile network operators to provide further support through this offer.

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