PLDT Enterprise recently turned over 665 units of pocket WiFi devices with Smart Giga Study plans for the use of the Lasallian Associate Partners of De La Salle Lipa in Batangas.

The Smart pocket WiFi devices are aimed at augmenting the school’s “BorderFree Education” system by connecting teachers and students online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Smart’s Giga Study plans are specially developed prepaid packages that cater exclusively to the academe. Giga Study includes daily data allocations for online learning tools essential to today’s new normal of learning. It also provides open data allocations that can enable both learners and faculty members to access information vital to furthering their expanded online needs.

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“We have not stopped teaching,” said Dfezie Torres-Tipan, chief of Strategic Services of De La Salle Lipa. “Even before March 15, we already had approximately 15 kilometers of fiber optic cable on the whole campus, linking all our classrooms in a Local Area Network. So we were prepared for this emergency. Through PLDT, we are extending our virtual infrastructure beyond the physical campus into the homes of our teachers. Thus the name ‘BorderFree Education’.”

Connectivity

The school has nearly 800 academic and administrative staff and over 9,000 enrolled students. The partnership with PLDT Enterprise provides the necessary connectivity for the faculty to conduct their educational activities for the benefit of their students who are safely studying at home.

This initiative is only one part of PLDT’s ongoing efforts to enable schools like De La Salle Lipa, to leverage technology and continue learning for its students even while at home.

“Our stance with the government to help combat this current crisis and help cope with the guidelines of quarantine has been the echoing mandate not just for us in PLDT, but of the entire MVP Group of companies,” said ePLDT president and CEO and SVP and head of PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups Jovy Hernandez. “We hope to expand our partnerships with the other schools and academic institutions to make e-learning not just as the band-aid solution today but instead the catalyst to elevate our education system to the next level of learning,” he added.