Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Cocco and Galimberti: "An important technological renewal resulting from the extraordinary public-private partnership". The collaboration with the Banca Popolare di Milano Foundation and the Metropolitan City will allow the strengthening of connectivity for 272 Milanese public schools

Milan, 1 December 2020 – The ongoing health emergency is rapidly rewriting the rules of access to teaching, highlighting that, without adequate connection and without technological devices supplied, the right to education is strongly threatened. From the desire to guarantee all Milanese students the possibility of access to distance learning (DaD), the collaboration between the Municipality of Milan and the Banca Popolare di Milano Foundation was born to give life to the project "Connect the school - Light up the future", dedicated to strengthening the connectivity of Milanese public schools.

“Thanks to an extraordinary partnership between public and private, today we present a fundamental project for the city and above all for students and teachers – declared the councilor for Digital Transformation and Civic Services Roberta Cocco -. Our institutes will be able to enjoy an important technological renewal that will serve to improve connectivity and guarantee the carrying out of distance learning and all possible activities and opportunities thanks to adequate digital support. As the municipal administration we will follow all phases of the project with the aim of improving the connection of all schools by January 2021".

“Since the beginning of this health emergency - commented Education Councilor Laura Galimberti - the city has shown great sensitivity to the issue of the right to education, building a network of solidarity which today allows us to provide a digital network to all schools, to support them in distance learning activities. An intervention that will make us ready to face the new challenges of the future, aware that the relationship in person cannot - especially for the little ones - be replaced, but can certainly and must be developed using the technological supports available. For this reason we thank the BPM Foundation for this donation which adds to the supply by Banco BPM of 240 devices for Milanese students concluded this summer".

“In such a complex moment, caused by the health emergency of recent months – declared Umberto Ambrosoli, President of the Banca Popolare di Milano Foundation – the newly established Foundation has decided to immediately address one of the aspects that the crisis asked to address with the utmost urgency and sensitivity: allowing all students, especially the youngest, to be able to continue their educational path. We are proud to contribute to making the relationship between students and their school easier, today from home and tomorrow also in the classroom. Our founding vocation is to meet and support the fragilities of the territory. Starting from school seemed to us to be the best investment for the future of all of us."

Thanks to the donation of 255 thousand euros by the Banca Popolare di Milano Foundation, the municipal administration will be able to guarantee the strengthening of internet access for 272 schools of which: 27 nursery schools, 144 primary schools, 92 lower secondary schools and 9 CPIA (professional adult education centres).

The implementation of the upgrade will take place in close collaboration with the metropolitan city which will guarantee the connection with its network in order to increase the bandwidth available to schools to 10Gbps. The Municipality of Milan will collect and profile the traffic, control its contents and "transport" it to the schools and renew and strengthen the network devices present in the institutes to adapt them to the new level of data flow.

In the next few days the bandwidth expansion intervention will begin in the first 15 institutes in Milan to reach coverage of 272 schools by January 2021.

Connect the school project - Turn on the future!