Sprint to Donate Devices, Data Plans to High-School Students
October 11 2016 - 5:50PM
Dow Jones News
Sprint Corp. said it plans to give one million low-income
high-school students free devices and free data connections over
the next five years.
The announcement made Tuesday expands a program the carrier
began in 2014 that gave wireless data connections to 50,000
students. Sprint Chief Executive Marcelo Claure said many students
weren't able to take full advantage of the offer because they
didn't have and couldn't afford devices.
"Being an immigrant in this country, and seeing that this
problem mainly affects African-Americans and Hispanics, it touches
my heart and I wanted to make sure we got it done right," Mr.
Claure said on a call with reporters.
Sprint, which has lost money for years, is in the midst of a
huge cost-cutting effort across its business. The carrier also has
been raising money by selling assets like used smartphones and
network infrastructure and leasing them back as a way to get lower
borrowing costs than are available on high-yield debt markets.
Most of the devices Sprint is giving away have been donated by
manufacturers, though Mr. Claure declined to name which ones.
Students will be able to select, with input from the schools,
whether they'd like a smartphone, tablet or laptop. Sprint will
also begin asking its customers whether they'd like to donate used
devices to students in need.
Mr. Claure estimated the retail value of one million
connections—each of which will get 3 gigabytes of monthly data
through high-school graduation—is roughly $2.2 billion, but he said
the actual cost will be less than that because supporting each
additional data connection is minimal. "It's inconsequential to
Sprint," he said in an interview.
Still, Mr. Claure also said the carrier would scale back
donations to other causes and focus all its philanthropic efforts
on this initiative.
Write to Ryan Knutson at ryan.knutson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 11, 2016 17:35 ET (21:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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