Schools Work to Speed Up Internet in Rural Homes for Remote Learning Districts are paying for Wi-Fi access, modems and routers—but locating families in need takes detective work Six-year-old Yaneth Gomez finished her first-grade online lessons for the day at home outside Patterson, Calif. By Dec. 15, 2020 8:00 am ET Laura Gomez’s two children were using her smartphone’s hotspot to log in to remote school early this fall, but the video calls often dropped. The connection was so weak the children couldn’t always see or hear their teachers. Ms. Gomez, who lives in a small agricultural community in California’s Central Valley, often had to drive 20 minutes east to her sister-in-law’s home in Modesto so her children could connect to their first- and fifth-grade classes using their aunt’s home broadband.