Elite Business Systems and the Connected Housing Initiative have teamed up with EE to offer a 20% discount off the price of an EE Osprey 2 mini 4GEE WiFi with 6GB PAYG sim card, see more here.
The offer will be open to any not-for-profit organisation committed to helping communities get online and learn new digital skills. Not-for-profit organisations, including registered charities and social landlords, can order the Osprey 2 mini 4GEE WiFi with 6GB PAYG sim card for £39.99 each instead of the retail price of £49.99 plus postage and packaging.
To register your interest, contact Mark Jennings at Elite Business Systems by sending an email to markj@ebstelecoms.co.uk. You can purchase multiple units to suit your organisation’s needs.
4G WiFi offers a great way to deliver digital skills courses and help people who are struggling to get online. These portable hubs can help in lots of ways:
• Start a pop up internet training suite. If you deliver digital skills courses in venues without WiFi access, you can now connect up to 10 devices to one Osprey 2 mini and use EE’s superfast 4GEE WiFi, with 3G connectivity in most rural areas.
• Tutors and trainers making home visits can take an Osprey 2 mini 4GEE WiFi with them to help clients get online straightaway. This can be a good way of engaging new learners through ‘try before you buy’ sessions.
• Clients struggling to afford internet access can be provided with an Osprey 2 mini 4GEE WiFi through grant programmes. Great for getting clients started online to make savings, access employment opportunities and boost their skills and confidence.
John Sawyer, manager for Age UK Warwickshire’s Web Wise Project, highlights the benefits 4G WiFis can offer: “Thanks to our 4G WiFi we can now provide Web Wise training in village halls and other venues which do not have broadband connections. This has helped older people in very small rural communities to learn about the online world.”
For anyone benefitting from this offer please post your story using #digihousing
More information about the Connected Housing Initiative and its aims can be found here.
Notes to editors
The Connected Housing Initiative (CHI) is a group of 13 national housing associations working collaboratively with the Mayor of London’s office, Government Digital Service, and digital skills provider, Digital Unite, to find affordable and flexible internet connectivity and hardware solutions for social housing residents.
Housing Associations who are CHI members include , Orbit Group, North Hertfordshire Homes, Hanover Housing Association, Viridian Housing, L & Q, Sovereign Housing, Southern Housing Group, Peabody, Metropolitan, The Hyde Group, Family Mosaic, Amicus Horizon and Affinity Sutton.
• Collectively, they own 405,000 homes, with in excess of 33,600 new homes in the pipeline
• 20-40% of their residents are offline
• This equates to around 115,000 homes without internet connection
• They have trained over 5000 residents to learn how to use the internet (digital inclusion)
• Financial investment in their digital skills programmes is over £1.5m
• Together, we have 25 years experience in running digital inclusion programmes.