With help from Mediacom, students in the Rock Island schools now have better access to the internet. The company has made its equipment available so there are many more hot spots available throughout the district.
Troy Bevans, I-T Director for the district, says when the pandemic began, students could use all the schools as "homework hot spots" for internet access, and a few businesses volunteered to help. But that left a lot of areas without coverage.
"So even if we can put a cradle point router broadcasting at a restaurant, the pandemic kept closing the restaurant. And so during the wintertime, that was when it was very difficult for students to get out into the cold or come up to the school building parking lot and utilize that."
Now, thanks to Mediacom, there are more than 100 possible hot spots around the Rock Island School District, and best of all he says, at very little extra cost. Bevans' goal is for dependable internet access in at least 80 to 85 per cent of the district.
The special network he created for the students is call ROCKfi, which stands for Reaching Our Community's Kids with fidelity.
