TULSA, Okla. — Union Public Schools was awarded an $800,000 T-Mobile EmpowerED grant to purchase 4,000 MiFi 4G wireless access points and two years of internet service.

These mobile “hot spots” will enable all students in grades 9-12 to have filtered, high-speed internet for home use and bolster Union’s 1-to-1 initiative to provide students with the use of a personal laptop computer by this fall.

The MiFi mobile units will provide each student with 2 GB of high-speed internet access per month; after that level has been exceeded, the rate drops to 128 kbps for unlimited data.

T-Mobile’s EmpowerED initiative is aimed at bridging the “homework gap”—the uneven playing field that exists when millions of low-income students are unable to access the digital tools necessary to succeed inside and outside of the classroom.