Do you know of any families that do not have wifi?

[MattWanksock]

A colleague said today that the school her DC go to rang to ask if they had wifi at home and were able to homeschool for the foreseeable. I do not believe it to be a disadvantaged area but I have no idea as I don't work where I live.

At first I was surprised and a little upset for the children of the school that this question needs to be asked. Having spoken to DP he says I mustn't understand how privileged we are to not have been asked that question. I should also feel bad about such an assumption. It was also mentioned at the 5pm briefing that it would cost £100 in data on pay as you go to get complete a day of zoom and educational websites.

The school our DC attend just assumed we would have a device to do 1000 zoom calls a day which I do think was a bit off.

So... do you know any household with children 0-18 that does not have wifi? AIBU to think you would be hard pressed to find a house that didn't have wifi due to the way the world is now.

I'm a bit ( a lot actually) disappointed that you hadn't realised that not all people can afford wifi, never mind the tech required. Sadly it's so easy to live in your own wee bubble , thinking that everyone has the same privileges as you do. I definitely think you are being unreasonable in thinking that the majority of homes have wifi as standard.

In my last school it’s about 80% (it differs between year groups). Staff had no idea until September. In initial lockdown back in April they knew there would be some problems because it’s a poor area, but when they asked who had internet access they got a largely positive response. What they didn’t realise was how many students meant mobile phones.

Plenty! But I work with families in temporary accommodation so perhaps that's not surprising.

A lot of the families I work with struggle with kids doing homework or even just getting all the news & info from school ordinary. Let alone attempting to homeschool.

I am not a family but on a low income. I do not own a computer or have wi-fi. Luckily my work has loaned me a laptop to work from home with, but I've had to take out wi-fi which I wouldn't have bothered with otherwise. Before that I just used 3g on my phone if I wanted to go online (or used the internet at work)

Yes I do , some rural areas here you simply can't get it

Yes. Almost every family (including my family for a while) I've met in emergency housing, temporary housing, refuge or below the poverty line, in any kinds of debt/pay day loan situation, do not have WiFi. Many don't have devices. Many don't have enough food to eat all of the time (food banks), can't afford to have the heating on (and rely on emergency payments from LA, Charity payments & often have a heating or eating issue). I do think you are coming from a position of privilege and so are the government and some teachers (at least in less socially deprived areas). A lot of poverty in Britain is hidden, but it is there, especially among pockets of particular social deprivation where jobs are Scarce and those that are are employed are underemployed. Families effected by health issues, mental health, addiction, disabilities, crime and abuse can be in a terrible situation, many are also key workers. Anybody unlucky enough to have fallen fowl to austerity, benefit cuts, and now covid 19. It's not a minority anymore.

AIBU to think you would be hard pressed to find a house that didn't have wifi due to the way the world is now.

If you think that you are ignorant of the facts.

I only know of people through my dc telling me about others at their schools not having wi-fi or in other instances not having a laptop/tablet. I don’t think you not realising comes from a place of privilege though, it’s just up to know how or why would we know?

This also annoys me as it's not just poverty (which is often hidden in plain sight) it's also rural communities, houses, hamlets with very little mobile signal and very slow non Fibre wifi connections. Where I live you can have one zoom call but thats it, there is no spare bandwidth for anything else. Thankfully the school teachers understand.

IME most people do have access to a basic TV set or alternative viewing method (be that smart phone, tablet, tv, laptop, etc.) and TV education would have reached a lot of disadvantaged families a lot better. No system is going to be perfect, but internet is a massive issue.

Yes, my school has provided dongles for several children

Of the families I know the ones with 2 working parents on minimum wage are the ones with no wifi.
The ones on benefits have all the gadgets and of course,the internet access.

The only person I don't know without WiFi is my stubborn 80 year old mum, who refuses such nonsense! (Yet phones me regularly to ask me to Google things 🙄)
But I can well understand that sadly there are many who rely on PAYG and phones. I'm thankful that all 4 of us have our own laptops, phones and iPads and fast unlimited WiFi which copes fine with all 4 of us are using it. My son's teacher phoned today to check if we needed any technical support, which was probably a subtle way of asking if we had WiFi/hardware.
It would be good if some of these lessons could be put onto dvd for kids that can't access them online, or if those children without access could also be offered a school place.

This is very interesting and upsetting to read. I'm only a decade past running out of gas and electricity before I was able to pay for more. Our internet was also cut off every so often but we had it, if that makes sense.

I think my view is because we don't have a tv license, a remnant of those days, and everything in our house runs on wifi/data. We wouldn't have anything to do with our free time if we didn't have any.

I do remember labours plan for wifi. I don't think it should be free for those that can afford it. Money could be better spent in other areas than giving WiFi to those already doing fine. I do think it should be free to those that can't.

A friend didn't have WiFi until a few years ago when her eldest left school, started working and paid for it.
She it was because said she didn't want a landline which I could never quite understand.

My bandwidth will only run 1 or 2 things at once. So if the kids are watching Netflix I have to use mobile data for zoom! That's with the best provision I can get in my area. The mobile network can be patchy too.

Some houses that are a long way from a phone exchange may get little or no broadband, hence hardly any WiFi.

We only recently got access at home by getting a mobile phone contract (got rid of the unused landline) and we can use the hot spot on it to connect the laptop to the WiFi. The laptop was a freebie from a friend btw.
Our financial situation is ok ish at the moment and tbh if we hadn't got a free laptop we probably could of paid for a basic one or my parents could have got us one.
The situation with education and the fact that having a laptop with WiFi is now a necessity (even when not on home learning) it makes me really angry that parents have to pay (sometimes) £100s on uniforms which are not actually practical for everyday learning and are uncomfortable to wear and quite frankly old fashioned and ugly.
Get rid of that nonsense (or have very basic trackies, polo shirt, hoody style uniforms) and more people would maybe be able to by this essential equipment instead.

We don’t have WiFi. Access to the internet through PAYG phones. One device between the three of us (single parent, two kids).

Yes. A few families. In the minority but more than two households.

AIBU to think you would be hard pressed to find a house that didn't have wifi due to the way the world is now.

YANBU, but...

Hand-wringing liberals pre-Covid:
“Of course poor people have technology and internet, you have to have it to apply for benefits and jobs, donchaknow.”

Hand-wringing liberals during Covid:
“Of course poor people don’t have technology and internet, the poor little mites don’t even have electricity, donchaknow.”

It’s a real issue in rented accommodation as many don’t have fixed phone lines so to install it would cost a couple of hundred pounds. In my Local Authority NONE of the children’s homes or Care leaver accommodation has WiFi.

We have 5 children and 2 adults and our WiFi is creaking. My husband and I are having to use data so our kids do t keep getting cut off.

We didn’t have WiFi for the entirety of the first lockdown

We often lose wifi because of where we live. I also know a few families who choose to not have wifi although those with dc are home schooled.

I think my view is because we don't have a tv license, a remnant of those days, and everything in our house runs on wifi/data. We wouldn't have anything to do with our free time if we didn't have any.

This is so sad. What happened to reading, colouring in, playing games together, going for walks, doing crafts etc. I can’t imagine a life where my free time was dependent on having the internet.