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UK's Three offers unlimited data to disadvantaged children in lockdown

Reuters
·2-min read

LONDON (Reuters) - British mobile network Three UK will provide free unlimited data to disadvantaged children in England after schools shut during lockdown, the latest operator to try to prevent children from falling behind during the pandemic.

Many broadband operators, including market leader BT, have removed data caps, and mobile operators have provided data packages for children in households that lack broadband.

Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer earlier on Tuesday called on operators to do more on data to help those children who have to rely on mobile phones for online learning.

"Everybody needs to try and make this work and that includes the companies that can take away the charging for data, it's a serious situation," he told BBC radio.

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Three, which is owned by CK Hutchison, said schools could request free, additional data through the Department for Education's Get Help with Technology programme.

The unlimited data will be applied until the end of the school year in July, it said.

"Three UK wants to support those families that need access to connectivity to support their child's learning needs during the pandemic," said chief commercial officer Elaine Carey.

A number of operators, including Three and BT, were already offering packages of mobile data in the DfE's scheme.

BT, for example, said it was giving 20GB of free data per month to disadvantaged families.

"The data is accessed through children's schools, and will allow pupils to access whichever educational resource that their school subscribes to help make sure no-one is left behind while face-to-face teaching is paused," a spokesman said.

Vodafone has offered 350,000 SIM cards that provide 30GB of data to schools and colleges for disadvantaged students, and it said it would keep working with the government to help.

The DfE said last month it would supply more than 1 million devices to schools, colleges and councils.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Kate Holton)