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Telecommunications goliath Sprint has begun a , a campaign to provide internet access and electronic devices to disadvantaged high schoolers. Through its philanthropic arm, the Sprint Foundation, the company hopes to reach a million students by 2021.

Announced , the project initially developed as a pilot in 10 major cities and high schools across the country, including and . Thousands of low-income students have already been given hotspots to provide broadband access at home, as well as a smartphone or tablet. Each device comes equipped with 3 gigabytes of data, as well as unlimited 2G connectivity.

To coincide with the beginning of the 2017鈥�18 school year, the initiative is now being rolled out in 118 school districts across the country. Some 300 pupils at New Jersey鈥檚 New Brunswick High School , along with around earlier this month.

The 1Million Project aims to close the so-called , the huge number of American families with school-age children that lack high-speed internet at home. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of unconnected households could number as many as 5 million out of 29 million nationwide. Those families are disproportionately under-resourced, representing about one-third of all families with incomes under $50,000 and children between the ages of 6 and 17.

By contrast, home internet use is . Of Americans with six-figure incomes, at least 94 percent use a smartphone, a laptop, or home broadband, and 74 percent use a tablet. Some 66 percent have access to all those digital assets, while just 17 percent of Americans with incomes under $30,000 can say the same.

According to , home internet use is much sparser among older Americans of all incomes. But a 90-year-old from the highest income bracket is much more likely to use the internet than a 15-year-old from the lowest.

That鈥檚 particularly troubling when academic work is increasingly being assigned and completed on the internet. A 2009 report from the Federal Communications Commission鈥檚 Broadband Task Force revealed that give homework that requires internet access to complete. Libraries and after-school programs can step into the breach, but the vast majority of students do homework … well, at home. Many students are left asking to borrow a classmate鈥檚 computer or device just to keep up.

鈥淚t鈥檚 stressful and embarrassing to keep asking my friend,鈥� one student . 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to keep bothering her. But I also don鈥檛 want my teachers to think I鈥檓 making excuses.鈥�

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