Insight Community Wireless Broadband Solution Helps Cities, Schools Bridge Digital Divide
Insight Enterprises (NASDAQ: NSIT) has launched its Community Wireless Broadband solution aimed at enhancing Internet connectivity in underserved areas. This initiative, supported by partnerships with municipalities, seeks to address the digital divide exacerbated by COVID-19, particularly affecting students and teleworkers. Tucson is the first city to pilot this program, impacting over 32,000 households lacking reliable Internet access. This solution not only aids immediate connectivity needs but also lays the groundwork for future smart city developments.
- Launch of Community Wireless Broadband solution enhancing Internet access.
- Partnership with Tucson to address connectivity for over 32,000 households.
- Utilization of CARES Act funding to support the initiative.
- Establishment of infrastructure for future smart city applications.
- None.
Insight Enterprises (NASDAQ: NSIT), the global integrator of Insight Intelligent Technology Solutions™ for organizations of all sizes, today announced its Community Wireless Broadband solution which, in public-private partnerships with communities, helps bring secure Internet connectivity to bridge the digital divide in rural and historically underserved counties, cities and schools.
The Community Wireless Broadband solution is provided through Insight Public Sector, Insight’s division serving the needs of federal, state, local and education government agencies. It creates a secure broadband Internet network that is privately owned by a municipality and can be accessed by anyone with the provided Wi-Fi device who lives within the coverage area. The hotspot-like device delivers a private, secure wireless connection to individuals’ homes, helping communities nationwide establish the critical infrastructure needed to make broadband Internet accessible anywhere.
“When COVID-19 sent students and educators home earlier last year, many school districts found that students didn’t have suitable Internet connectivity in their homes to support remote learning. Through our Community Wireless Broadband solution, we’re helping cities and school districts securely and reliably deliver the education promised to those students. Our solution also provides essential broadband access for people in a telework situation who may be lacking the connection they need to work from home,” said Brian Louderback, regional director of State, Local and Education for Insight Public Sector.
With government relief programs like the CARES Act making critical sources of funding available to help communities connect to broadband Internet, Insight Public Sector is partnering directly with municipalities to implement Community Wireless Broadband. Insight’s Cloud + Data Center Transformation team conducts the end-to-end management of a project, from analysis and design to coordinating with the service and technology providers within its deep partner network to build the broadband infrastructure and deliver the right Wi-Fi devices to a community. Insight then provides the long-term managed services to enable the Internet access and the help-desk support end users need without the risks of a public Wi-Fi network.
Insight Public Sector is working with the City of Tucson — where more than 32,000 of the city’s roughly 212,000 households lack reliable Internet access — to pilot this solution. Given high poverty levels, infrastructure limitations, and the effects of the pandemic, thousands of students and teleworkers in Tucson face the ongoing challenges of unreliable access to work and school. By leveraging CARES Act funding for a city Wi-Fi expansion plan, Tucson partnered with Insight Public Sector to implement a Community Wireless Program to bring the infrastructure needed to make essential broadband Internet access available to the city’s population most impacted by the digital divide.
Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, this solution lays an important foundation for smart cities. In a smart city, everything hinges on connecting different sensors and IT assets that collect data to a private and secure broadband infrastructure. Insight’s Community Wireless Broadband solution provides this infrastructure, an essential step in seamlessly integrating smart devices for public safety, traffic management and other vital city services into the grid in the future.
For more information on the City of Tucson Community Wireless Program, visit wifi-pilot.tucsonnetlink.com or read their latest news release here. To learn more about Insight’s Community Wireless Broadband solution, visit insight.com or call 1.800.INSIGHT.
About Insight
Today, every business is a technology business. Insight Enterprises Inc. empowers organizations of all sizes with Insight Intelligent Technology Solutions™ and services to maximize the business value of IT. As a Fortune 500-ranked global provider of Digital Innovation, Cloud + Data Center Transformation, and Connected Workforce solutions and services, we help clients successfully manage their IT today while transforming for tomorrow. From IT strategy and design to implementation and management, our 11,000 teammates help clients innovate and optimize their operations to run business smarter. Discover more at www.insight.com. NSIT-M
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