From February 2021, eligible students who find that cost is a barrier to having an internet connection at home will be provided with a free Skinny Jump wireless modem and broadband connection, including 150GB of free data per month, until the end of the school year.
Skinny Jump is a not-for-profit broadband product managed by the Spark Foundation for NZD 5 per month. Ciena, a Spark supplier, and Spark will fund the full cost of Skinny Jump for eligible decile 1 high school students until the end of the school year.
The Fund will be launched with an initial cohort of seven schools in term 1, including, Manurewa High School, Mangere College and James Cook High in South Auckland; Bishop Viard in Porirua; Wairoa College and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Kahungunu o Te Wairoa in Wairoa; and Tolaga Bay Area School in Tolaga Bay. From term 2 it may be extended to further eligible low decile high schools around New Zealand.
There are currently over 11,000 homes connected through Skinny Jump, a more than 100 percent increase since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 35,000 homes are expected to be connected by 2023, which would address more than 15 percent of the homes in New Zealand that do not currently have access.
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