Google donates Chromebooks and WiFi hotspots to help students in California

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a lot of problems for the students, especially those who don’t have a reliable network connection or a laptop. Google has now decided to help them out and the company is donating 4,000 Chromebooks and 100,000 WiFi hotspots to households in California.

The company’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced the initiative in a tweet on Wednesday. California Governor Gavin Newsom said the Department of Education will distribute Chromebooks and WiFi hotspots and will prioritize rural communities.

Proud to work with @GavinNewsom & partners to help bridge the digital divide in our home state. We’re providing 4,000 Chromebooks to California students in greatest need & free wifi to 100,000 rural households during the #COVID19 crisis to make distance learning more accessible.

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) April 1, 2020

While schools might be physically closed, class is still in session. This agreement is good news for students and parents, and the announcement means that more California kids will have tools to learn at home during this crisis.

I am so proud of every sector of our state—private, public, labor—coming together to meet this moment, and I am calling on other companies to match Google’s investment today to ensure our students and teachers have the resources they need to continue their education during this time.

– Governor Newsom

According to SFGate, Governor estimates that California needs an additional 162,013 hotspots on top of the 100,000 hotspots Google will provide to meet the needs of students.

Google is not the only company that’s working towards curbing the spread of coronavirus. Recently, Microsoft announced that its global supply chain team has secured much-needed supplies which included protective gear, thermometers and more. Apple and Facebook, on the other hand, have donated millions of masks to the healthcare workers in the US and Europe while Razer, Tesla and SpaceX converted their manufacturing assembly lines to produce surgical masks and ventilators respectively.