Google donates 4,000 Chromebooks, free Wi-Fi to California students

Google has announced to provide 4,000 Chromebooks and 1,00,000 Wi-Fi hotspots for rural students in California, who are studying from home due to coronavirus pandemic.

The initiative was announced by California Governor Gavin Newsom and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday.

“We are providing 4,000 Chromebooks to California students in greatest need & free wifi to 1,00,000 rural households during the #COVID19 crisis to make distance learning more accessible,” Pichai tweeted.

Governor Newsom said the state’s Department of Education will distribute the Chromebooks and WiFi hotspots, prioritising rural communities.

However, the governor estimated that California needs an additional 1,62,013 hotspots on top of the 1,00,000 hotspots and to meet the need the governor has asked other companies to donate.

The search engine giant has announced to provide over $800 million to support small and medium businesses (SMBs), health organisations, governments and health workers on the frontline of global COVID-19 pandemic.

The commitment would include $250 million in ad grants to help the World Health Organisation (WHO) and more than 100 government agencies globally provide critical information on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other measures to help local communities.