Building on the success of their partnership last year, leading mobile services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) is once again supporting McDonald’s Philippines in its initiative to turn 250 unused party rooms in select branches into McDonald’s Classrooms – safe and quiet spaces where teachers and students may conduct their virtual classes and meet their online learning needs.
To ensure they can connect to fast and reliable internet for their e-learning, Smart has turned over Smart Bro Prepaid Pocket WiFi Advance kits for use at all the participating McDonald’s Classrooms across the country. This year’s program also adds 200 more branches to last year’s figure to cater to more users.
Powered by Smart Bro Prepaid Pocket WiFi Advance, teachers and students may enjoy twice the speed of regular LTE Pocket WiFi devices because of a feature called carrier aggregation, which enables the device to combine multiple signals from different cell sites for a much faster and more reliable connection. The device also connects up to 10 WiFi-enabled devices for easier sharing and worry-free surfing among multiple users.
Extended until December 3
Started last October 11, 2021, McDonald’s Classrooms will run until December 3, 2021, to cater to fully-vaccinated teachers and students aged 18 years and above.
To ensure the safety of users, only two teachers or students are allowed to use the free service at two available time slots: 8AM to 12NN and 1PM to 5PM from Monday to Friday. Each user also needs to reserve a slot at participating branches. To know more about McDonald’s Classrooms’ guidelines, visit https://mcdonalds.com.ph/mcdoclassroom.
“We are grateful to Smart for their continued support of our McDonald’s Classroom initiative. Through Smart’s provision of Pocket WiFi, we are able to better serve and equip the teachers and students with their distance learning,” said Oliver Rabatan, assistant vice president for marketing and channels of McDonald’s Philippines.
“We are honored to continue our partnership with McDonald’s Philippines in this initiative to set up conducive spaces for teachers and students. This is just one of the many community programs we’ve been happy to support especially during these challenging times for educators and learners. As we transition to a hybrid work and learning setup, we shall continue to look for more ways to provide Filipinos with world-class connectivity to power their daily tasks at work or school,” said Jane J. Basas, SVP and head of consumer wireless business at Smart.
From Ilocos to General Santos
The Smart-powered McDonald’s Classrooms are now live at select stores in Metro Manila, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Albay, Aklan, Bataan, Batangas, Bohol, Bulacan, Camarines Sur, Cagayan de Oro, Capiz, Catanduanes, Cavite, Cebu, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, General Santos, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, and Iloilo.
There are also participating McDonald’s Classrooms in Laguna, La Union, Masbate, Misamis Oriental, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Nueva Ecija, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Quezon, Rizal, Surigao del Norte, Tarlac, Zamboanga del Norte, and Zamboanga del Sur.