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Monday, June 16, 2014 

Smile in free Uganda schools router offer

EAGER: Okoth (2nd left) said their company believes improved education can unlock more future prosperity for Uganda.

KAMPALA, Uganda - Smile Communications Uganda, a broadband provider, has decided to provide government schools with a free router that provides 20 GB’s of free data on the 4 G LTE platform every month.

This is intended to ease learning and research which eventually all improve education in schools. It will also stimulate digital innovation, accelerating broad band penetration and improving learning.

During its launch at Bukerere secondary school in Mukono one of Kampala suburbs Jacob Okoth, Head of Sales and Marketing, Smiles Communication said they want to recognize the role that education plays in the success of the country’s future and also enable these schools attain reliable and consistent information that will ease school projects.

 “Smile Communication focuses on education as one of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), because education is key to unlocking our country’s future and economic development. That’s why we will provide free routers and 20GB of free data per month to 20 schools in Kampala,” he said.

This will enable students surf for information in their school projects thus enable them grow and thrive in an increasingly competitive digital world thus make learning continuous and interrupted.

“We believe education is key to success of any country’s future which is why we have given those government schools routers to provide free internet therefore we are excited to contribute towards the improvement of learning in Bukerere Secondary School” Okoth said.

According to him, some of the things these schools will benefit from include instant available access to online study groups, video lectures, the how to educational video’s, the latest articles, information and knowledge

Besides improving on educational tools in the schools, this platform will also enable the schools connect directly with schools in other parts of the world and above will improve their overall literacy on ICT and how it works a thing that has been missing in most of these schools.

In addition, teachers will now be able to support students learning by assessing their progress in a much more sophisticated and improved way sharing assessment with pupils and parents.

He said “we remain committed to easing the burden experienced by teachers and learners by making the learning environment as pleasant as possible”.

Smile Communications intends to connect four additional schools in the same districts within the next two months and 15 other schools in other Kampala districts.

Experts in the IT sector predict that 4 G LTE technology is set to become the global standard for delivery of mobile data and voice services for the next decade  and possibly beyond.

The company launched the first true Fourth Generation Long Term Evolution (4 G LTE) network in Uganda last year and since then it has been delivering the fastest broadband internet services to customers in Kampala, Entebbe and Mukono with phased roll ut planned across Uganda over the next five years.  

The gadget device allows up to ten users with any Wi-Fi enabled smartphone, tablet, kindle or laptop to connect to the internet and experience the full benefits of 4G LTE. 

By Winnie Mandela, Monday, June 16th, 2014