Last month, WifiForward announced our first-ever Wi-Fi At Work Awards. Each of our 16 awardees used creativity and innovation to meet a critical need for broadband and Wi-Fi access in their communities during the pandemic. And this week, we hosted a panel discussion with six panelists representing five programs, for a deeper dive into their respective initiatives.

Check out a few highlights about each program:

• Peter Coyl from Montclair Public Library kicked off the webinar to talk about their senior-focused Wi-Fi hotspot program. Coyl emphasized that the senior-focused campaign was crucial because most information about the pandemic was found online — everything from COVID protocols to finding a vaccination appointment. Without those hotspots, the senior population would have been left without “basic information” pertaining to the pandemic.
• Rob Hale from Novant Health and Matt McNeel from Extreme Networks talked about their collaboration in creating a massive, stand-up vaccination event with secure Wi-Fi at the Spectrum Center in North Carolina. Hale emphasized early on that “healthcare is very dependent on Wi-Fi going forward.” And McNeel added that they set up, within an hour, an event with complete Wi-Fi coverage that “enabled the healthcare workers to quickly access patient information.”
• Charlie Douglas from Comcast explained the Lift Zones program. Douglas specifically mentioned the collaboration with some non-profit partners, in which Comcast would help supply Wi-Fi in community centers where students in low-income communities could go to do coursework while schools were closed.
• Bob Longworth from Lockland Local School District brought up that COVID-19 emphasized what many in education already knew, “Wi-Fi is no longer a luxury; it’s now a lifeline for our families and really everyone.” Longworth explained the District’s public Wi-Fi program, which set up Wi-Fi in various locations across the district. In Phase 1, the program registered 2,500+ users and logged more than 36,000 Wi-Fi sessions. With great success from Phase 1, Longworth said they aim to launch Phase 2 in December 2021, with the goal of providing 100,000 Wi-Fi sessions.
• Jenniffer Stephenson from First Regional Library closed out the presentations discussing their hotspot program. Most of the areas served by First Regional Library are very rural and many lack at-home broadband, so the library saw the need for the hotspot program as local businesses began remote work and schools implemented distance learning. They acquired 550 total hotspots and gradually distributed them to every library branch in the area who then loaned them out to patrons.

After the presentations, the panel had a lively discussion about what comes next and what more can be done for the future to keep people connected. Longworth stressed that “[partnerships are] essential. Without the support of those within the specific communities, but also at a governmental level, this is not a sustainable model.”

The conversation then shifted to the need for help not just with providing Wi-Fi and internet access, but figuring out how to help increase digital literacy rates. All the panelists agreed that the pandemic brought about many Catch-22 situations. Students needed to learn and attend school online, but had not yet learned the skills to connect their computers to Wi-Fi. People were looking for important information about the Emergency Broadband Benefit to get connected but didn’t have access to even learn about the program in the first place. And that seems to be the next big project that industry, public institutions and government all need to collaborate on to take steps forward.

In the last 22 months, we have come a long way, but we still have a lot of work to do. Our panelists and all the Wi-Fi At Work Awardees have helped meet the immediate needs of connectivity in communities across the country and we can’t wait to see what comes next!

Check out the full webinar here.

Read more about all our Wi-Fi At Work Awardees here.