Page 12 - aruba-today-20200914

A12 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 14 SepteMber 2020
Insider Q&A: T-Mobile pushes internet for virtual school

By TALI ARBEL trouble completing their
NEW YORK (AP) — T-Mobile homework. And that's a
is pushing to offer internet little bit broader because
service to schools that are it's not just the internet. A lot
doing online learning with of them do it on a phone.
a program aimed at low- They have internet access.
income students who don't It could be that they need
have access. In the U.S., a bigger screen, which is
millions of students don't why we're also offering at-
have high-speed internet cost, larger-screen devices.
or computers at home — We've looked at the enroll-
a difficult enough situation ments in the school lunch
when it was just about try- program, we've looked at
ing to get homework done, all the Census data. That's
but a much bigger prob- what this number is.
lem when many school Q: What have you been
districts have moved part charging schools for get-
or all of the school day on- ting internet to students
line during the coronavirus who don't have it?
pandemic. Katz: It ranges greatly. I can
School districts are spend- tell you this program is now
ing big to address the crisis. going to be our main edu-
The L.A. Unified School Dis- These undated photos provided by T-Mobile shows, from left, T-Mobile executives Matt Staneff cation program. The dis-
trict is investing $100 million and Mike Katz. trict, they can get unlimited
in online learning, includ- Associated Press starting at $15. That's value
ing computers and internet that's not available any-
service for kids who don't day, T-Mobile is adding two about the company's new ers. This is a huge problem. where else in the market,
have them. T-Mobile wants paid plans as well: $12 a effort to serve schools. The Q: And you think 10 million and it enables schools to
to expand its business that month per household for conversation has been ed- kids have connection is- then pass through service
serves large organizations 100GB, or $15 a month for ited for length and clarity. sues that stops them from at no cost to the students.
like big companies and unlimited data. The carrier Q: Is providing connectivity being able to do online Q: So does the new pro-
schools. says those prices are dis- to schools something that school? Estimates vary, but gram offer better pricing for
It had already planned to counted to reflect the free- you see as a big business I've seen higher numbers. schools than what's avail-
give districts 100 gigabytes data offer. opportunity? (A new study says between able to them from T-Mobile
of free wireless data per Matt Staneff, T-Mobile's Staneff: Sure, there's busi- 15 million and 16 million now?

year per student, a com- chief marketing officer, ness opportunities there. public-school students Katz: It's netting so prices
mitment the company and Mike Katz, an execu- But the motivation of do- don't have adequate inter- are lower than what we've
made while pursuing its ac- tive who leads the T-Mobile ing this is that we recognize net connections or devices done at any time.
quisition of Sprint. But since division that caters to large there's a problem in society for online school.) Q: How long will this be
that allotment wouldn't last organizations like schools of kids not being connect- Staneff: There's another available?
more than a few months and big companies, spoke ed. We want to do more data point that says 56% of Staneff: Once you sign up,
if kids streamed school all with The Associated Press than just try to win custom- school-age kids have had you're good for five years.q
Facebook may have to stop moving E.U. user data to U.S.

sion has started an inquiry the economy and hamper the EU's top court issued
into how Facebook shifts the growth of data-driven a ruling in July on the two
data from the European businesses in the EU, just as types of legal mechanisms
Union to the United States. we seek a recovery from used to govern data trans-
The news was first reported COVID-19," Facebook's fers.
by the Wall Street Journal, vice-president of global af- The European Court of Jus-
which said Ireland's data fairs and communications, tice invalidated an agree-
commission gave Face- Nick Clegg, wrote in a blog ment known as Privacy
book until mid-September post. Shield and decided that
to respond to a preliminary The Irish data commission the standard legal clauses
order to suspend the trans- suggested that a type of were still OK. But in cases
fers. legal mechanism gov- where there are concerns
The result could be that the erning the data transfers, about data privacy, EU
U.S. tech giant, which has known as standard con- regulators should vet, and if
data centers around the tractual clauses, "cannot in needed block, the transfer

In this April 14, 2020 file photo, the thumbs up Like logo is shown world, is forced to under- practice be used for EU-U.S. of data.
on a sign at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. take a costly and complex data transfers," Clegg said. The outcome of the case
Associated Press revamp of its operations to The commission, which did could also affect other
ensure that European user not reply to a request for companies doing business
By KELVIN CHAN found some trans-Atlantic data is kept out of the U.S. comment, is Facebook's across borders, Clegg said,
LONDON (AP) — Facebook data transfers don't protect It's unclear, however, what lead privacy regulator in giving as examples a Ger-
may be forced to stop users from American gov- impact - if any - there would Europe and can fine com- man startup not being able
sending data about its Eu- ernment snooping. be on Facebook users. panies up to 4% of annual to use a U.S.-based cloud
ropean users to the U.S., in The social network said "A lack of safe, secure and revenue for data breaches. provider and a French re-
the first major fallout from Wednesday that Ireland's legal international data It's the first major move by tailer unable to maintain its
a recent court ruling that Data Protection Commis- transfers would damage a European regulator after Moroccan call center.q