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 live in area where we couldn't get a unlimited Internet access

@MaskingForIt

"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.”"

The technology and Internet was a mobile phone on a payment plain. They aren't adequate for homework, but are needed for benefits, contact etc and rule out the need of a phone line.

I know lots of families without wifi. I live in a deprived part of Liverpool. There's also going to be lots of children who are going to be very cold because there isn't enough money for heating. There will be lots of children suffering because of relative/actual poverty, which will impact negatively on them. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not.

Nope, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have WiFi.
Thought it was a pretty standard thing that everyone has now. Even my 80 year old nan has WiFi.

Several, but then I work with children so know a lot go without.

We're rural, and we finally now have faster broadband, but it's data limited. (Unlimited costs over £150 a month)

If my kids had full time zoom lessons every day, we'd run out of data with days.
It's expensive to top up too...

I spend my days telling the kids to stop using the internet so much!

Yes. In many of the schools I have worked in recently there would be a handful, or more, of children who don't have access to Wi-Fi. In the cases where they do have Wi-Fi, many other children don't have access to a laptop or computer and trying to do certain tasks on a phone or tablet is incredibly difficult. On top of this, there are lots of families where the parents aren't able to support their children with home learning because they themselves aren't literate or numerate enough to do so.

No, I know no families without wifi. I know a couple of elderly ladies who don't have it.

I worked in a school early this year where we asked what devices and wifi the kids had access to. Around 13% didn't have wifi or access to a device. This is a state school in SW England that had other children wearing tailored uniforms. The divide was made very obvious. The same children without wifi or devices had lower scores in assessments and more behavioural issues. And parents who went without meals so they could eat.

We didn't for a year - temporary rental, but we had unlimited 4g

We're rural, as in truly remote and WiFi was going down so often that we have given up on it (telephone line is so old our landline goes down for weeks regularly).

Openreach may have a legal obligation to provide a basic service but not even Ofcom or my MP can force their way through the red tape and upgrade cost.

So we're now on a vvvvv expensive satellite connection (4g you can't get at our edge of the village and 3g is about 1.5meg download, you can't even watch a basic Netflix show on the lowest setting).

But this costs us £55/month - £110 month depending on package,and the download amount is limited. We've had to get a second emergency connection allocated for work at home during covid, more ££££s that fortunately work are paying for.

So no. Not many around here have proper WiFi no. Normally people like us would be able to use a 4g mobile connection but even that would be cheaper than our satellite antenna setup and monthly cost.

It really is a privilege around here to have decent WiFi! It's only in recent years that we can afford it!

Yes. Lots. Via my work. To the extent that we gave out "data vouchers" to ensure that people could get online. Previously they had used libraries, cafes with free WiFi or supermarket WiFi

For all those saying you don't know anyone...you could well do. They don't go shouting about it, which is a huge problem in itself

never heard of tailored uniforms in a state school. how strange.

Where as Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party - the ones who were apparently so dangerous that this shower were preferable - wanted to give everyone free WiFi. Would have come in quite useful as it happened!

Sadly, I think if that upsets you then you have no idea of the deprivation some children live in. I've had flea bites from sitting on a sofa, walked across broken floor boards with no carpet and have, for years, worked in a school where we wash the uniform of students because they would never be washed at home. We even provide shower packs that have toiletries and give sanitary wear for school and home. We buy gifts from 'Santa' at Christmas which is in reality staff donating gifts and money to give at least 20 families (not single students) some type of Christmas.

As previous posters have said if they have a smart phone it is pay,, houses would run out of electricity and gas and the internet would be an absolute luxury.

The majority of my class are statistically living in poverty leading to huge problems when it comes to online learning. Some have no device or internet, some have a device but insufficient data, some have data but the device they have doesn’t support any apps/programmes they need to access the learning, some families are sharing one device between all the adults and children in the household, and the list goes on...

Unfortunately, lots of people seem to think that just because they don’t directly know of anyone living like this then it only affects a small minority. Sadly every school I’ve worked in has included children and families living like this.

Yes, I know people without WiFi and we are super middle class. One of dc’s classmates lives in a tiny caravan like squatting in some farmer’s field (not travellers, just a bit unconventional).

It’s not even WiFi though it’s access to high speed internet. Our actual broadband internet here isn’t fast enough to stream a video. Certainly wouldn’t be fast enough to do a school zoom session, me to work and youngest to watch tv (we can only get tv online here), which is what was necessary for me to work in first lockdown.

We have to have mobile internet but it didn’t use to be unlimited. We were spending £200 on data during the first lockdown. We’ve now been able to change plans and I think it’s only £50 but for some people that would be a lot.

@AndcalloffChristmas

Where as Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party - the ones who were apparently so dangerous that this shower were preferable - wanted to give everyone free WiFi. Would have come in quite useful as it happened!

Absolutely! WiFi is a necessity now, not a luxury.

@alexdgr8 Do you mean like blazers? Because it seems really usual for secondary school children to wear uniforms with fitted shirts, blazers and ties.

Yes. Also, as others have said, families where the internet can only be accessed on mobile phones.

I live in a very nice, seemingly quite posh, village too. I think some of you who assume everyone you know has the same level of tech as yourselves may be surprised.

We have wifi but in an old house and it’s pretty poor, husband and I already struggle to do zoom calls at same time without adding school on top

My dd’s friends’ family don’t. When I lived a refuge I didn’t and this is probably standard, so any children in a refuge.

@Evvyjb that is so sad.

You need to be able to pass a credit check to take out a broadband contract, if a person has had poor payment history in the past they will be declined a new contract in the future from a provider. Over a 10 year period it's conceivable to have reached a bad debt disconnection situation with every UK provider and be unable to get a broadband connection at all.

None of this is the kids fault. Their education shouldn't be impacted.

We have WiFi but the connection is so bad (less than 1mbps) and am now having to pay £40 a month for home 4g WiFi so 2 secondary age children can work from home. It's money we don't have! (will cancel original broadband at end of contract but not helpful now)