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.

And many people don't have smart phones either. I used to work for a care home company who decided that a good way to save make more money would be to charge the care staff for any meals they had at work. After being told they couldn't deduct the money from the wages as it would take the pay below minimum wage, they decided on an app that the staff could pay through, only after rolling it out to 15 care homes did they realise that half the staff didn't have smart phones, couldnt use the app and only ate the food as it was free, so it was a complete waste of time.

Yes, many, many through my work.

I live in a deprived area on a council estate ,most people I know have WiFi , but I giuess it's complex we live in the northwest cheaper housing more social housing so more people can afford WiFi

This thread is an example of how out of touch lots of people are. It really isn't that unusual for people to have no home broadband or WiFi in the same way as they don't have house phones. Mobile phones are so versatile nowadays people rely on them; especially if you are living somewhere short term where the cost of getting broadband up and running might be disproportionate.

When our department first started WFH in March, we had a small but significant number of staff who had no way to work from home. Some had no internet (whether WiFi or wired connection) or any kind of device - no laptop, tablet etc. They had a modest mobile phone package with no tethering or hotspot, and a monthly allowance of 1-2g or similar. Some had internet, but only a very old laptop or tablet on which they either couldn't load the necessary software for our work systems, or that device was being shared by their children for schoolwork. There were also some who had very low speed internet that was incompatible with our work systems. Some people don't even have smartphones of course. Most of the above had young children either primary age or younger.

These are all people working in professional roles, earning around the local average or more, but still unable to afford the extras.

Even if they have WiFi, there will I'm sure be families where, if they're lucky, have only one tablet or laptop between any number of children.

I understand totally what the schools are shut, but my god it must be hard on families.

I use my local library a lot, and the computers there were usually busy. Libraries have been shut during the lockdowns, leaving the regulars without internet.

My brother and his daughter don't have wifi, because he's been nicking my internet ever since he moved next door to me, and the signal's a bit shit, so we ran a cable across.

I'll hold my hands up to being on benefits and having all the tech though. All bought on credit and carefully budgeted for over years.

We have limited WiFi capacity. Not exactly the same thing but if DH and I are online working and both dc are trying to do remote learning we have real issues

I have experience working in deprived communities it is really common not to have WiFi.

My friend with a toddler does not have wi-fi. Her (and her partner) have phones with large data limits and will occasionally let the little one have a play or watch videos on the phones. I said when they start school it might be an idea to get wi-fi and maybe a small tablet and she agrees. But has no plans to for a while. I find it quite refreshing just playing organically like we did.

@Penners99

Yes. A family two doors down has no phones, WiFi or television. There are 5 secondary school age children living in the house.

This Is the deliberate choice of the parents.

WTF.

That's fine, their choice.

Yep definitely students at my school with no WiFi at home and only a smart phone, not a tablet or laptop. As others have said- some households struggle to keep the gas and electric on. Poverty levels in the UK now are higher than they’ve been for a long while. Didn’t you see any of the press stuff last year about Foodbanks being used by record numbers? Welcome to 21st century Tory Britain.

@Grenlei yes we had same issue at my school in lockdown 1. I was one of the staff who had no laptop or
Computer or tablet device at home. Laptop died 4 years ago and never had spare funds to replace it sadly. Luckily work was able to provide staff with no devices with a laptop on loan so we could teach remotely and set work etc

Forgot to add... In the (awful) area where I grew up, less rural connection being crap but more deprived, I still know people there without a proper WiFi or devices.
One example is a friend who couldn't complete her tax return online because the text message code wasn't being accepted on her smart phone (running on 4g data constantly turned on) but she didn't have an actual proper desktop to do it on, and libraries are all shut. She asked if I could give her time on my laptop when she next visits but lockdown being extended has scuppered that.

(She'd have to walk into the garden to receive the text message code on her phone, which is another fucked up situation at home, no mobile signal indoors even on 3g. Bank access is a fucking nightmare when the codes time out after 10 minutes!)

No legal obligation by phone providers to fix this infrastructure around here. Hence our paying for a private satellite connection.

So even if you have a proper device, and a data or WiFi connection, your online access might still be fucked in another fun way depending on your setup.

I’m a teacher and not every student has WiFi/access to a device.

Yes - I know people in rural areas without a connection or a very limited connection that is not up to a video connection.

Even when a family has some devices, any parents tend to have first call on laptops when WFH. My DH was surprised by the number of his young colleagues who don't own a laptop and have been struggling to WFH using the features of their (admittedly fully featured) smartphones.

Not having wifi/a device puts the child onto the government's vulnerable list and therefore eligible for a school place.

We never had it until this year. Nothing to do with money, just didn't need it until wfh. I get some ridiculous amount of data on my sim only mobile plan for £20 a month, and just used my phone as a hotspot if needed.

No idea because home WiFi is not a topic we discuss.

I DO know quite a few families with 3-4 kids in 3 bedrm council semis (at most 2 living rooms downstairs), where the smallest bedroom is basically a box room. There is no 'quiet study space' to be had. I doubt they have spare devices too, certainly not one for each kid.

Yes loads. Even more where they don't have a tablet or laptop at all. Or a phone with 4g.

Dds iPhone 6 unlimited data was too old for the app school needed her to use earlier for some work, ffs what tech do they assume every kid has?! She has her own room, phone, laptop and unlimited Wi-fi but still not enough for what her school requires

I know of one household who do not have WiFi and have school age children. They are horrifically bad with money, and they make their rounds to the local food banks often.

They were provided with dongles from their children's school during the first lockdown.

My mum doesn’t use the internet and has no interest in doing so do she has no wi-fi

Where I work is very deprived, the kids often don't have appropriate clothes, toothbrushes or a lunch but they all seem pretty knowledgeable about YouTube. They might have no WiFi but there's usually a smart phone used to entertain. Not saying that would/could be used for home learning though.

@Makingnumber2

Yep definitely students at my school with no WiFi at home and only a smart phone, not a tablet or laptop. As others have said- some households struggle to keep the gas and electric on. Poverty levels in the UK now are higher than they’ve been for a long while. Didn’t you see any of the press stuff last year about Foodbanks being used by record numbers? Welcome to 21st century Tory Britain.

And whats more, the use of food banks is up 40% from last year. Its horrific the way some people have to live in this country