Some Districts Installing Wireless Internet On School Buses

NPR (5/18) reports that some students in the Vail School District in southern Arizona "can easily spend more than 2 1/2 hours on a school bus every day." To make the ride more productive, the district has since November provided wireless Internet access on its buses. "To pull this off, the district installed a wireless router just above the front windshield," creating "an instant Internet hotspot." According to Sterling Pratz, CEO of Autonet, "the company that makes the routers...the devices had been primarily for private vehicles. School bus connectivity wasn't even on his radar a few months ago, he says." Since then, however, "about 25 US school districts, both rural and urban, have signed up for the service." The company has also "adapted the service for schools" by filtering out "adult content."