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 The corporate donations come as the Federal Communications
Commission said it would spend $2 billion over two year to upgrade
Internet speed and quality in schools and libraries.
Obama will speak about the effort at Buck Lodge Middle School in
Adelphi, Maryland, where students use tablets for their lessons.
"What this really does is give us the potential to revolutionize how
teaching and learning happen in the classroom," said Cecilia Muñoz,
director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, in a conference
call with reporters.
Among the corporate pledges are free iPads for poor schools from
Apple Inc, free software from Autodesk Inc, marked-down software
from Microsoft Corp, and donations of wireless services from AT&T
Inc, Sprint Corp and Verizon Communications Inc, the White House
said.
There was no projection of how many students would benefit from the
donations. "It's quite safe to say millions and millions of young
people will be in some way impacted," said Gene Sperling, Obama's
top economic advisor.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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