Sprint Corp (NYSE:S) has announced plans to offer smartphones, laptops, and tablets to students in low-income families as part of a new 1Million Project. The initiative is part of an effort that seeks to close the ‘homework gap’ across the United States.

Sprint 1 Million Project

In addition to free mobile devices, the wireless company will offer students high-speed wireless internet service that they can use to do their homework among other research work. For starters, the program will target six districts public school across in Florida ahead of national roll out.

Each student enlisted in the 1Million project will receive either a free smartphone, tablet or hotspot device able to connect to 3GB high-speed internet service. Sprint will offer unlimited data at 2G speeds if the usage goes beyond 3GB per month.

Sprint will donate more than $2 billion worth of wireless service, technical support as well as staff to enable the project.  A good chunk of the devices that student will receive have been donated by the likes of LG Electronics, Motorola, and TCL in support of the Sprint foundation.

The 1 million Project was born out of the fact that 70% of high school teachers assign homework that requires students to use the internet. In contrast, 5 million families with children in school in the U.S don’t have internet access to complete it.

Schools Selection

Sprint has already carried out a background check of students in public district schools that would benefit from the 1Million initiative. The company has also developed an effective plan that it says will identify a new device being activated as part of the 1Million project for connectivity.

Selected participants in the project had to show strong commitment to the project as well as manpower needed to activate and execute the program. Some of the schools selected include some in New York, Florida and California.

“Sprint believes that there should be no barriers to a child’s potential. We’re incredibly excited about the impact our 1Million Project could have across the country and in the Carolinas,” said Michael Miess, Sprint’s President for the North Carolina and South Carolina region.

Shares of Sprint were up by 1.20% in Monday’s trading session to end the day at $8.41 a share.